>From: Andrew Mandell <amandell@jpusa.org>
>To: dfsiemensjr@juno.com, gmurphy@raex.com
>CC: dfsiemensjr@juno.com, burgy@compuserve.com, asa@calvin.edu
>Subject: Re: Process theology
>Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2000 14:51:32 -0500
>
> Hello,
>I seem to recall in the hebrew scriptures especially in some of the
>conversations with Abraham and Moses a feeling like God changing his mind.
>Also some of the prophets words "from God" (through man obviously)seem to
>have an infected by time feel to them. Does this have any bearing on the
>discussion. I have always been attracted to a God that can be suprised or
>be changed by love but wouldn't want to sacrifice anything integral to the
>faith.
>
Another point is that the only really clear statements of God's
changelessness in the Tanakh seems to be wrt his moral nature eg. Malachi
3:6. To say God is timeless is to remove from Him any chance that He is a
living God. A timeless Being aka Parmenides [and that's where we get this
obsession with timelessness from] is NOT living.
What does timelessness really mean? God transcends time.
But in what way?
For the Hebrews I say it means God commands the events of time NOT just
forsees passively. He brings about that which He wills... quite distinct to
the Greek concept that infests our philosophy of God.
The Greeks imagined "timelessness" being above the spheres of the planets
and stars because their revolutions generated Time - hence Aristotle's God
propelled the Spheres of Time as the Undying Mover, and Hermetics and
Gnostics both imagined salvation involving leaving the Spheres of Time and
Destiny behind. Timelessness and Changelessness both involve STASIS in Greek
philosophy and that is the poisoned well from which Church theologians have
drunk so deeply.
Adam
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