The author describes three types of understanding eternity: eternity as timelessness (e.g. Augustin), eternity as complete or partial co-temporality (e.g. Boethius) and eternity as endlessness (e.g. Richard Swinburne). Under the conditions of the first type, there is no link between God and world. Action, alterity and novalty are meaningless concepts. Under the conditions of the second one the world gets more value, but still the notions of action (divine and human) and novalty remain meaningless. The third type avoids all these difficulties but the categorical difference between God and world vanishes. In order to overcome these problems, the author suggests to understand eternity strictly as the events of the inner-trinitarian relationships and the human eschatological hope as participation in this inner-trinitarian network by grace. © Walter de Gruyter 2005.