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G./ Mantzaridis, "God and Time"

On the Problem of Time, page 8-9

St. Gregory of Nyssa stresses the tremendous difference that exists between created and uncreated nature and notes that the former is limited by both time and space, while the latter transcends any notion of limitation.33 Human life unfolds 'in space', beginning at some starting point and proceeding to some finishing point. Thus, it falls naturally into two distinct parts: that part which is already over and remains in the memory, and that part which is still awaited and represents the object of our hope.34 But participation in divine life offers the man of faith the possibility of a constant reaching forward,35 so that he increases constantly in that which is good as he participates in that which is unfailing and everlasting.36

According to St. Maximos the Confessor, time is "circumscribed movement,"37 which is measured from the creation of the world. If the world did not exist, then neither would time. Time is the measure of those things which are sensible, while eternity is the measure of those things which are intelligible.38 Eternity is time stood still. Time is eternity in motion.39 The common feature of all things is their created nature. God, on the other hand, who is the Creator of all things, is uncreated and beyond time and eternity which define the nature of created beings.40 Man's nature unfolds in time and is subject to change. But when it is united to God, it becomes released from that subjection to change induced by time, and acquires a state of ever-changing stillness, or still perpetual-motion.41 Union with Cod does not put an end to the created nature of man, but joins it to the uncreated grace of God. Man becomes what God is, "without sharing his essence."42 He becomes, in the words of St. Maximos, "without beginning and without end, no longer bearing within him that life that changes with time, that has a beginning and an end, and is rocked by much suffering, but rather possessing only the divine life imparted by the indwelling Word of Cod, that is everlasting and not limited by any form of death."43

footnote:

"Put another question and I will answer it. Since when has the Son been begotten? Since as long as the Father has not been begotten. Since when has the Spirit been proceeding? Since as long as the Son has not been proceeding but being begotten in a nontemporal way that transcends explanation. We cannot, though, explain the meaning of 'supra-temporal' and deliberately keep clear of any suggestion of time. Expressions like 'when', 'before x', 'after y', and 'from the beginning', are not free from temporal implications, however much we try to wrest them. No, we cannot explain it, except possibly by taking the world-era as the period coinciding with eternal things, being a period which is not, as 'time' is, measured and fragmented by the Sun's motion." Gregory the Theologian, Theological Orations 3(29), 3, PG36, 77A.

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