Sempiternity

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Sempiternity (from Latin "sempiternitus": "semper" ["always"] + "aeternus" ["eternal"]) is duration through time without limit; a sempiternal being exists at all times, having "beginningless, endless temporal existence".[1]

In the philosophy of religion and theology, the notion of sempiternity is used in contrast with that of eternity, which is the notion of timelessness; an eternal being is one that exists outside time.

Notes

  1. Stump & Kretzmann, p.222

Sources

  • Thomas V. Morris [ed.] The Concept of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-19-875076-5
  • Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann "Eternity". The Journal of Philosophy LXXVIII:8, 1981. References to reprint in Morris [1987].