Fr Joseph Pallattil

“Time flies over us, but leaves behind its shadow.” Famous quote on time from the mouth of blessed American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Some are afraid of time, some are anxious about time, some feel bored of time, some enjoys time, some are defeated by time, but some succeed over time. We are conscious about time when we are waiting for something; surely the concept of time is little bit mysterious. Here we see what St Augustine, the Philosopher, says about the concept of time. St Augustine’s under standing of time can be seen in his writings such as On Genesis and The confessions. In On Genesis and in Book XI of The Confessions, St Augustine explores the nature of time. Augustine writes, “What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to explain it to a questioner, I do not know.” Time is a concept that we appear to understand, but once we endeavour to explain time itself, it gives rise to paradoxes.

Augustine has two understanding of time. In this article, I would like to elaborate Augustine’s objective understanding of time. Objective understanding of time says time is a creature of God. Augustine writes, “What time could there be that you had not created? Or how could ages pass, if they never were? Thus, since ‘You’ are the Maker of all times, if there was time, ‘You’ made it, for time could not pass before ‘You’ made time.” Time is created by God. Augustine’s argument can be formulated in the following manner:  God created time, since it is a creature of God, time is not eternal.  Time began when God created the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo). When God created the universe, humans were still not created; humans were created some days after the universe was created.  Therefore, time is a creature of God that existed prior to human consciousness.  Thus, time is independent of human consciousness. Time, seen as a creature, began when the universe began.

Since time had a beginning, the question, “What was God doing before He made heaven and earth?” is meaningless. The question itself is meaningless because there was no time. Augustine states, “If before heaven and earth were made there was no time, then what is meant by the question, ‘What were you doing then?’ If there was not any time, there was not any “then.” The term “before” and “after” signify relations between occurrences in time. If there is no time, then it would be pointless to talk about what happened before a certain event. We can only talk about “before” and “after” once time has began.