Abstract

Contemporary theology is realizing the importance of integrating the knowledge ofmodern/contemporary physics into the metaphysical and ontological categories usedto consider God and the God-world relationship. Time is a complex notion withdifferent meanings, characterized by a plurality of uses. The concept of time opens upto broader conceptions than those of physics, mathematics and philosophy and revealsthat the human being, the earth and the cosmos are not the center of space or time.The concepts of space, time and matter, to which the concept of vacuum is connected,are of central importance in any modern physical theory, and particularly in thetheories of unification. It is being discovered that spacetime is absent at the mostfundamental level and only emerges at an appropriate limit. This emerging image oftime leads to new conceptual challenges that must be faced in parallel withphilosophy and theological research to achieve its correct understanding. It is acomparison of the viewpoints of the three investigative domains concerned withunderstanding the nature of consciousness, namely science, philosophy andmetaphysics. This thought process is connected to the intuitions of the contemplativeand mystical traditions.