Tanrı-Zaman İlişkisi Bağlamında Richard Swinburne’ün Klasik Teizme Eleştirileri ve Zamansal Tanrı Tasavvuru

Abstract

This study examines Richard Swinburne's thoughts on the relationship between God and time, one of the forefathers of the modern philosophy of religion. I will analyze Swinburne's critiques of classical theism's conception of God acting in the timeless/eternal and possessing the present, and asses to which extent the philosopher's temporal conception of God can overcome classical theism's difficulties. The idea of God being incorporated in time, according to theism, would make God a prisoner of time. God would be constrained by time and the natural laws that govern it, and situating creation under the concept of eternal time, as Swinburne claims, would pose some difficulties for classical theism's assumptions. Swinburne contends that the concept of eternal God as owning the present raises a number of theological-philosophical issues, including human freedom, God's goodness, and how God acts in time. Swinburne finds traditional theism's theories of human will inadequate, claiming that in order to provide for human freedom, God voluntarily intervenes in time and limits his own self-knowledge. Swinburne acknowledges that God must operate in time by claiming that acts connected to the essence of the act occur across in a certain period of time rather than in moments. In other words, contrary to what classical theism argues, God does not act in his eternal present. According to him, God acts through time because acts do not occur in moments but in certain period of time. Examining Swinburne's idea of time and the relationship between God and time within this framework is critical for revealing the challenges caused by the idea of timeless God presented by classical theism. The purpose of this research is to determine which difficulties classical theism and Swinburne's arguments on the relationship between God and time answer and which problems they open up in theological and philosophical dimensions. Another goal of the research is to provide a critical viewpoint on both points of view. Swinburne's The Christian God, The Coherence of Theism, and Space and Time is evaluated in the study using the textual analysis approach and secondary source data. In conclusion, according to Swinburne, classical theism's conception of God is defended as a result of assumptions about certain divine attributes such as immutability, perfection, power, and knowledge. It is also clear that these assumptions raise some theological problems. The idea of God's temporality, on the other hand, was put forward in order to solve some problems regarding human will, God's goodness, and God's agency. As a result, the temporal notion of God solves some of the challenges created by the timeless conception of God in classical theism, yet classical theism has several presuppositions that prevent it from accepting this view. The assumptions that both sides make on certain issues serve as their starting point. Both perspectives' conclusions point to further issues that need to be addressed.