Volume 5, Issue 8, June 1996

BELIEF IN PROGRESS

When Eternity Enters Time

Have our culture and society progressed through time towards a hoped for objective or do we judge there is little or no advancement in the human race? To describe an answer to this question a distinction must be noted between a philosophy of history and a theology of history. From the viewpoint of a philosophy of history any goals in history are a matter of process. History is an evolution and can have meaning only in relation to the facts of past events.

A theology of history, however, looks at history as a process in time moving always toward a definite goal. The whole process is applicable to a wider plan that is a real part of history.

In the Bible our world is described in visible and invisible terms, neither separate from the other, but included in the whole of reality. The word "eternity" means the dimension of reality that is outside time, yet a part of life, begging our attention and energy. Though beyond time, the eternal is with us in the here and now, a knowledge of an idealized world metaphorically identical with the spiritual meaning of the Garden of Eden. (See, "The Great Code", by Northrop Frye, Penguin Books, 1990, pgs 72 and 124).

Theology as a God-centred philosophy speaks of God as a thought, a name, an idea, a reality basic to our being. The early Hebrews insightfully expressed God as, "I will be what I will be." (Exodus 3:14). To quote Northrop Frye (above, p. 17) "we might come closer to what is meant in the Bible by the word 'God' if we understood it as a verb, and not a verb of simple asserted existence but a verb implying a process accompishing itself."

Some religions conceive time as cyclical, repeating itself, and human life as a changeless recurrence, like a wheel turning on its axis, repeating itself endlessly. The Greeks thought this way in their concept of the "logos", the cycle of earth, air, fire and water as the basic elements of the physical world. This philosophy is reflected in the prologue of the Gospel of St. John: "In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

The Hebrews preferred to think of time linearly, purposeful rather than repetitious, with a beginning and an end, serving to join the temporal and the eternal.

The Hebrews lived on hope, and the whole orientation of their thought was towards the future. They saw history as a significant process. They recorded and interpreted the events of their lives in their sacred writings. They were more theologians than historians. They interpreted events in their understanding of the sacred and holy meanings in life.

For us, too, life is full of "happenings" as the Hebrews observed. Time and chance are taken by the wise and the imaginative and turned into spiritual experiences that not only strengthen and enlighten them for the present but instruct them for building the future.

A couple of years ago when camping on the shore of the Atlantic Oceon at the beautiful Islands Provincial Park, Shelbourne, Nova Scotia, I watched a stormy off-shore wind beat the waves into whitecaps and appearing to make the waters move away from the shore.

But, observation of the shoreline showed the tide to be in flow and coming in. Despite the optical illusion, the water was steadily rising on the beach against the storming wind pushing it out. The tide unobtrusively and inexorably reached its destination.

I see the realm of God like this. Appearances may lead one to believe the world and society are worsening, perceptual observation indicates progress. Greater attention to individual rights is given today than ever before. War is generally condemned and now leaders of warring countries can face the world court for war crimes. Few countries continue the subhuman practice of capital punishment. Though churches are declining, Christianity is reviving. These and other signs indicate the progress of the realm of God in history.

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"Religion NOW" is published in limited edition by the Rev. Ross E. Readhead, B.A., B.D., Certificate of Corrections, McMaster University, in the interest of furthering knowledge and participation in religion. Dialogue is invited and welcomed.