A Conversation on Divine Infinity and Cantorian Set Theory

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4.29-jfse-2000-henry.pdf(2.85 MB)
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Date
2012-08-21
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This essay is written as a drama that opens with Aristotle, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Thomas Aquinas, and Nicholas of Cusa debating the nature and reality of infinity, introducing historical concepts such as potential, actual, and divine infinity. Georg Cantor, founder of set theory, then gives a lecture on set theory and transfinite numbers. The lecture concludes with a discussion of the theological motivations and implications of set theory and Cantor\'s absolute infinity. The paradoxes inherent in analyzing absolute infinity seem to provide a useful analogy for understanding God\'s unknowable nature and the divine relation to creation.
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