奥古斯丁时间哲学中的神学思想.PDFVIP

奧古斯丁時間哲學中的神學思想 －以《懺悔錄》卷十一為主 The Theology of Augustine’s Time Philosophy on Conf ession Book XI － 輔仁大學宗教系博士生吳瑞霞 Zola Wu (Ph. D. Student, Department of Religious Studies, Fu Jen Catholic University) 124 新世紀宗教研究 第七卷第一期 The Theology of Augustine’s Time Philosophy —on Conf ession Book XI Zola Wu Ph. D. Student, Department of Religious Studies, Fu Jen Catholic University Abstract St. Augustine (354-430 AD) in his Conf ess ion , through his interior quest, reflects on “what is time.” He has completely changed the Ancient Greek traditional about the concept of time which is considered to be an external and objective physical movement transformed into an internal conscious flow in the soul of human beings. Augustine sees time as basically “Now”. What we call “past” is the Now that has gone and “future” is the Now yet to come. More accurately speaking, there is no division between past, present and future. What really exists is “the duration of the Now.” It means “the now of eternity” which is the attribute of God’s aeviternity. Only God can be called “Being.” Owing to this existential mode, God is “the now of eternity.” As for humans, they are beings constantly in the process of “thinking” in time. Consequently, how humans are is the way they think. This thinking is kept in the memory and through memory human beings can perceive God’s merciful presence, which can lead to a mystical experience, such as the Ostia vision that Augustine and his mother have experienced.