This important monograph represents an original, timely, and generative exploration of how God can be said to relate to temporal reality. Although it is generally agreed that any specific understanding of the nature of time has important consequences for religious understandings of God’s interaction with the temporal order, including the question of human transformation, surprisingly little attention has been paid to this question by those working in fields such as philosophy of religion, theology, and science and religion. Existing discussions tend to focus on the doctrine of the incarnation, considering how a ‘timeless’ God can be said to become ‘incarnate’. Although these have been illuminating, they are somewhat limited and are clearly in need of expansion.
Emily Qureshi-Hurst here sets out a rigorous and highly original exploration of the relation of spatiotemporal reality and a specific Christian doctrine – the nature of salvation. Many theological accounts of salvation rest on an ultimately intuitive perception or subjective experience of the forward flow of time. Since salvation involves change and transformation, it is thus assumed that the actuality of salvation requires ontological or relational changes to take place within the flow of time. But what if our experience of the flow of time is an illusion, an impression we form that does not have a secure basis in reality?
In this highly significant study, Dr Qureshi-Hurst explores contemporary understandings of the nature of time, using the ‘block universe’ model of spatiotemporal reality to open up some significant theological questions focusing on the doctrine of salvation. Her theological dialogue partner here is Paul Tillich, whose doctrine of personal salvation is rigorously analysed in light of what contemporary metaphysics and physics suggest about the nature of time. In effect, Dr Qureshi-Hurst is inviting her readers to take part in the kind of ‘thought experiment’ popularised by Albert Einstein. If the ‘block universe’ model is right, what are its philosophical and theological consequences? How can we reinterpret Tillich within this particular hypothetical framework? And what of other understandings of the nature and dynamics of salvation?
Whilst this monograph makes some important analytic and synthetic moves, there is much more that remains to be explored. Dr Qureshi-Hurst has opened up a fresh avenue of discussion that shows considerable promise and will hopefully be taken further by those working in the fields of science and religion, the philosophy of religion, and Christian theology.
