Sempiternity

Sempiternity (from Latin "sempiternitus": "semper" ["always"] + "aeternus" ["eternal"]) is duration through time without limit; a sempiternal being exists at all times, having "beginningless, endless temporal existence".

In the philosophy of religion and theology, the notion of sempiternity is used in contrast with that of eternity, which is the notion of timelessness; an eternal being is one that exists outside time. The term "eternity" is, however, often used to refer to sempiternity; as Stump and Kretzmann point out, for example: "The many medieval discussions of the possibility that the world is 'eternal' really concern the possibility that it is sempiternal, and most often their concern is only with the possibility that the world had no beginning in time."

Sources

• Thomas V. Morris [ed.] The Concept of God. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-19-875076-5
• Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann "Eternity". The Journal of Philosophy LXXVIII:8, 1981. References to reprint in Morris [1987].