  In special-relativistic physics, spacetime is imbued with a fixed,
non-dynamical metric tensor. A path to gravitational theory is to promote this
tensor to a genuine dynamical field. An alternative description of
special-relativistic physics involves no fixed geometry but instead the
inclusion of scalar fields $X^{I}(x^{\mu})$ which dynamically may take the form
of inertial coordinates in spacetime. This suggests an alternative approach to
gravity where the invariance of actions under global Poincar\'{e}
transformations of $X^{I}$ is promoted to either a local Poincar\'{e} or local
Lorentz symmetry via the introduction of gauge fields. Points of commonality
and departure of the resulting gravitational theories as compared to General
Relativity are discussed. It is shown that the model based on local Lorentz
symmetry is an extension of General Relativity that can introduce a standard of
time into the dynamics of the gravitational field and allows for spacetimes
described by a Minkowski metric or flat Euclidean signature metric despite the
gravitational gauge field possessing non-zero curvature.

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology