Theological Origins of Modernity* Modernity was an attempt to find a new metaphysical solution to the question of the nature and relation of God and man in the natural world. It was a series of attempts to constitute a new coherent metaphysics and theology. The idea of modernity was a move away from the ancient distinction of understanding reality and universals. Via Antiqua was the older realist path, which saw universals as ultimately real. In comparison, the Via Moderna was the newer nominalist path that saw all individual things as real and universals as mere names. And these logical distinctions provided the schema for a new understanding of time and being. This metaphysical shift from how one sees the world was not due to a change in knowledge but rather a change of understanding time, seeing that time is not as circular and finite but as linear and infinite. Understanding what change meant as a continuous natural process that free human beings could