The Divine Relativity

Charles Hartshorne has set himself the task of formulating the idea of deity "to preserve perhaps even increase, its religious value, while yet avoiding the contradictions which seem inseparable from the idea of customarily defined." This is a brilliant attempt to redefine problems that have long challenged the Western world in its search for understanding both God and man. “The compact, closely reasoned book employs a skill in logic reminiscent of scholasticism at its best to refute traditional notions, scholastic and otherwise, of divine absoluteness, and to expound a conception of God which is both free of contradiction and religiously adequate. The position taken is described by Professor Hartshorne as surrelativism, or panentheism, and these terms indicate the two major emphases of the volume….He who follows its precise logic with the alertness it demands will have a clarifying and enriching experience.”—S. Paul Schiling, Journal of Bible and Religion “In what respects is God absolute and in what respects relative? Or is it meaningless to say that he is both? In a rigorously analytical study Professor Hartshorne explains why he thinks both statements are necessary….One comes from this book with new confidence in the ability of philosophy to attack religious problems and, through careful analysis, to reveal what as alone conceivable must be true.”—J.S. Bixler, Review of Religion “Hartshorne's work is a major achievement in religious thought because it strives to clear away errors that have been insuperable obstacles to religious search.”—Henry N. Wieman, The Philosophical Review “This book is not merely theoretical, as might be supposed; it has its practical application to the larger social issues of our time, including the problem of democracy.”—Jay William Hudson, Christian Register

This book has two aims; first, to provide a new account of time's arrow in light of relativity theory; second, to explain how God, being eternal, relates to our world, marked as it is by change and time. In part one, Saudek argues that time is not the expansive universal 'wave' that is appears to be, but nor are we living in an unchanging block. Rather, time is real but local: there are infinitely many arrows of time in the universe, each with their own fixed past and open future. This model is based on the ontology of substances which can exist in different states, marked by different properties. On this basis, a derivation of temporal precedence and of the asymmetry between the fixed past and the open future is provided. Time's arrow is thus 'attached' to substances, and is therefore a local rather than global phenomenon, though by no means an illusory or merely subjective one. In part two, this model is then applied to the perennial questions concerning the relationship between divine eternity and the temporal world: How can my future choices be free if God already knows what I will do? Can God act if He is not in time? Through the lens of relativity theory, such questions are shown to appear in a completely new light. The book combines insights from theoretical physics with ancient and contemporary philosophy into a unique synthesis, broaching a wealth of key issues including the arrow of time, the evolution of the cosmos, and a physics-based defence of eternalism in philosophical theology.

The larger project of which this volume forms part is an attempt to craft a coherent doctrine of divine eternity and God's relationship to time. Central to this project is the integration of the concerns of theology with the concept of time in relativity theory. This volume provides an accessible and philosophically informed examination of the concept of time in relativity, the ultimate aim being the achievement of a tenable theological synthesis.

2nd Edition with over 150 illustrations How can we have freewill when it seems that our lives are already predetermined by God? "For I alone am God! I am God, and there is none like me. Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish." (ISAIAH 46:10) One of Stephen Hawking's theories makes it possible for us to have freewill while at the same time it enables God to know the future before it happens. The explanation is simply amazing! This is the story how Hawking ducked and weaved to avoid the evidence that his theories kept leading him to, namely that God created the Universe. However, in the end he came face to face with the Divine Author and ironically, it was one of his theories that made that fateful confrontation possible. But he could not bring himself to overcome his religious paradigm and acknowledge what his eyes had clearly been revealing to him. By reading this book not only will you learn about Hawking's brush with the Divine Author on a number of occasions, but you will also gain a good grounding on Black Holes, the Steady State Theory of Fred Hoyle, the Big Bang, Hawking Radiation, Einstein's theory of Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, Imaginary Time, String theory and more. This will enable you to make an an informed judgement as to the premise of this book, that, "In the Beginning God created the heavens and the earth." As for Hawking, having been unable to contradict his own theories any more and in a final act of frustration and self-betrayal he adopted a theory that was not even one of his own - M-theory. Now here is the irony of it. By all accounts M-theory is not a genuine theory but rather it is philosophical speculation disguised as science. Sir Roger Penrose, who shared the Wolf Prize for physics with Hawking in 1988 said on a radio show in 2010, ..". M-Theory isn't even a theory. It's a collection of ideas, hopes, aspirations. It's not even a theory." For any scientist, let alone a science superstar like Hawking, to disparage philosophy on the one hand, and then proceed to engage in it by adopting a self contradictory philosophical stance on the other, with M-theory, is really scraping the bottom of the barrel. What a sad end to such a remarkable man, who has captured the hearts and minds of so many people. But is it the end? Hawking's story is not finished yet. He once said: "Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." Thus, it is in the realm of possibility that he may read this book, which goes over his theories that often point to God and change his mind. Stephen, if you are reading this, it is not too late to change your mind and believe what your eyes have been telling you all along. The question is will you? The world waits with bated breath upon your decision.

Theologian Harry Lee Poe and chemist Jimmy H. Davis argue that God's interaction with our world is a possibility affirmed equally by the Bible and the contemporary scientific record. Rather than confirming that the cosmos is closed to the actions of the divine, advancing scientific knowledge seems to indicate that the nature of the universe is actually open to the unique type of divine activity portrayed in the Bible.

This book examines the implications of the Judaeo-Christian claim for our understanding of the universe that it is contingent: freely created by God out of nothing, and having an existence, freedom, and rtional order of its own while still dependent on him. Professor Torrance argues that this claim made possible the development of western empirical science, but that Newtonian physics obscured the connection between the rational order of nature and the Christian doctrine of creation. He shows how modern relativity and quantum theories have once againd rawn attention to the significance of contingence, and imply that the universe is found to be consistently rational only if it is dependent on a creative rationality beyond it. He considers finally the disorderly elements in the universe, both physical and moral, and argues that the doctrine of incarnation as well as of creation is necessary to deal with the intellectual problems which they raise.