Question

In Book XI of Confessions, Augustine tries to understand what time is. This question matters deeply to him because God

Answer 1

In Book XI of Confessions, Augustine tries to understand the concept of time, and how this relates to God and creation.

Augustine starts by trying to understand how God could have "spoken" the word and "created" the universe if time and space did not exist. The conclusion he reaches is that these concepts should not be taken literally, but spiritually. Moreover, he argues that the whole universe does not change in the way in which one event comes after the other one. Instead, it changes within a space that is God's whole, where nothing begins or ends. Therefore, he reconciles this contradictions by developing an idea of divine determinism.