Heller M, Woodin W.H. (eds.) Infinity. New research frontiers (CUP, 2011)(ISBN 1107003873)(O)(327s)_MAml_

enriching our theological understanding: two examples 28313.3 Enriching Our Theological Understanding:Two Examples 2313.3.1 Infinity in the Context of Divine Revelation: “The Transfiniteas the Veil that Discloses”Previously I suggested that the early Christian world helped to transform the meaningof infinity from its negative connotations, involving an unlimited chaos or a gnawingprivation, to more positive connotations, suggesting ultimate reality as the ground ofbeing, the highest good, and the source of the world. At the same time, however,theologians retained the classical Greek distinction of the infinite as wholly differentfrom, and in contrast to, the finite. Thus, to say that God is infinite is to say that Godis incomprehensible.This distinction, inherited from the Greek philosophical culture by the early church,has predominated through the centuries in Christian theology as it seeks to speakabout God. We see this most clearly in the distinction theologians make between theapophatic and the kataphatic, which we discussed in a previous section. To repeat,we start with acknowledging the apophatic, that is, how little we know of the unseen,incomprehensible mystery that is God. Then we move to the kataphatic, that is, weseek to express something that we do know about God by analogy with our experienceof the world. The key point for our purposes here is that the term “infinity” hasplayed a pivotal role in this history: it has been used almost exclusively to expressthe stark difference between the apophatic and the kataphatic. God as infinite andwe as finite means that God is other than, unlike, wholly different from us. Now weare in a position to appreciate the importance of Cantor’s work for the meaning ofrevelation. The key will be the way the reflection principle in mathematics points to aconnection between what we know and what we do not know about Absolute Infinity.In theological language, we can say that the reflection principle relates what we havehimself, and most prominently Bertrand Russell, which have forced major revisions in set theory. Theserevisions lead into such new areas as logicism, axiomatization, and intuitionism, and at the same time they tendto undercut the Platonist/realist interpretation of infinity. My response is that these differences do not directlyhamper the fruitfulness of using Cantor’s work theologically. The issue of the consistency and coherence ofCantor’s set theory does not speak directly for or against its applicability to the doctrine of God, where thenotion of the infinite versus the finite has been, for far too long, embedded in Greek thought of the infinite asthe apeiron.Regarding the second challenge, if any property that we think of as a property of the finite world wouldturn out to be a property of the infinite, it might seem to challenge our understanding of God: either the worldwould be God, thus leading potentially to pantheism, or the world would simply be infinite and there would beno need for God, thus leading in principle to atheism. The importance of the finitude of the world has residedin the fact that it has been seen as a key defense against unbelief as well as a key constituent to the Christiandistinction between Creator and creation, or more generally the Christian definition of the God-world relationin terms of Creator-creation. I think that these concerns, too, were a factor motivating the detailed argumentsby Bill Stoeger and George Ellis against multiverses (see Stoeger, Ellis, and Kirchner 2005). My responseto Stoeger, Ellis, and Kirchner is that the God-world distinction is founded on an ontological distinction thatdoes not require the traditional finite/infinite distinction as its basis. Even a world filled with actual transfinitescould still be considered a created world and not divine.23 The following section is drawn in part from a much larger project I am pursuing called Time in Eternity:Physics and Eschatology in Creative Mutual Interaction, funded by a Metanexus/Templeton Foundation grant.