The Coexistence of Time and Eternity: Cajetan's Solution to God's Knowledge of Contingent Futures

Resumo

This paper examines Tommaso de Vio Cajetan's commentary on Article 13 of Question 14 in Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologiae, focusing on the core challenge of God's knowledge of contingent futures. This gnoseological issue is inextricably linked to the metaphysical concepts of temporality, eternity, necessity, and contingency. Cajetan structures his argument by establishing a precise order of relations between the absolute, eternal nature of God and the relative, contingent nature of generated existences. The central claim investigated is that the doctrine of divine knowledge, particularly regarding contingent futures, must be sustained by the relation between divine eternity and temporality. Cajetan's view of eternity, which draws on the Boethian analogy, posits a coexistence between every temporal instant and the divine unum nunc (one now) of eternity. It establishes a form of presentism and lays a theoretical foundation for further investigation into the ontological status of potentiality, free will, and the logical structure of a conditioned continuum of eternities. Moreover, the paper notes that Cajetan's conceptualization requires a mathematical framework to articulate the relation between infinity and finitude and proposes new avenues for contemporary metaphysical inquiry into the eternity-temporality relation.

Keywords: Cajetan, Contingent Futures, Divine Eternity, Temporality, Presentism

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21747/civitas/13a5