Friday, November 02, 2007

cyclical eschatology

help. can anyone point me to a text that articulates what might be called "cyclical eschatology." this would be a view of time that is not strictly linear nor strictly circular. it is a view of time that emphasizes patterns and cycles but also had a beginning and is moving towards a future. augustinian time theory is linear and impacted the christian/western view of time. cyclical time (ouroboros- the snake eating its tail) is the eastern view of time. the closest view i can find to what i am looking for are both the jewish view (in Heschel) and ecological time theory that relies heavily on earth cycles to understand time. i need an author who clearly spells it out for citation purposes. any leads?

8 comments:

bryan nixon said...

i'm afraid i'm not much help with a specific source, but i thought that you may want to research "kairotic" time. also, i remember andrea dearborn talking about the celtic spiral perspective of time in the celtic spirituality class.

good luck friend.

elnellis said...

thanks b. i'm looking at kairotic, but the celitc lead sounds interesting. cheers.

Unknown said...

Geez, good luck. When you find the lead you're looking for, I'd be interested in knowing what it is. I did draw a diagram once that incorporated this idea into redemptive history, but it was just something that pooped - I mean popped - out of somewhere.

Unknown said...

From a literary perspective, it seems to me like this idea is implicit in Madeline L'Engle in her A Wrinkle of Time series

No way! I just found out that she died on September 9 this year. I can't believe I hadn't heard about it until now.

Nathan Smith said...

when you find what you're looking for please post it as this sounds like an interesting subject to follow up on. Blessings

Anonymous said...

not sure if it relates at all... but The Hermeneutical Spiral by Grant Osborn may have some tangental references in some of its chapters.
-melissa

Anonymous said...

I'm just some random guy, but I thought I'd say that I suspect an apt model of time will be a bit more expansive than a simple and singular line can express (consider the multi-dimensionality- even beyond three- of mathematics as an anology for grasping complex spatial relationships). However, I do agree that there is a singular direction or trajectory to time. It moves "forward".

elnellis said...

thanks for stopping by jacob. that is helpful to remember.