Judaism, Christianity, and Indigenous Religion
Vanessa Loaiza
Dr.
Religion
31 September 2010
Time Concepts on the Judaism, Christianity, and Indigenous religion The concept of time is full of mystery, by instinct we feel that time cannot be stopped. We all exist in time, and everything is subject to time. It seems obvious that because we live in time, it is the prime measure of existence. As assumed by many philosophical and religious schools, no beginning or end can be attributed to time. To the different concepts of time we have sacred time and religious time. They come closest to what may be called cosmic time: the big time of the complete whole of the cosmic reality. Sacred time is the past, present and future collapsed in one eternal now making for our connectedness. Religious time is the time that is respected on religious grounds. It is usually bound to natural order by means of calendars, sundials and/or clock (-schedules). In the Jewish religion, Judaism, Jews have never perceived time as progressive, but rather as a fragmented line. Its parts-past, present, and future-were not perceived as a continuous process in which one stage is a sequel to its antecedents. The Past was the era of glory, philosophically-inclined Jews in the Middle Ages perceived themselves as inferior in virtue to preceding generations. This inferiority complex was not simply a reflection of the general medieval view of history as an ongoing process, but rather a specific Jewish belief that the ancient Hebrews had the advantage of political independence in their own land, while the spiritual resources of “modern” Jews were depleted in exile and dispersion. The Present was the long era of Exile, Its beginning was a well-defined point in time; the destruction of the Second Temple, “but its end was shrouded in mist” (Lyman 15), as rabbinical Judaism rejected all eschatological calculations or detailed descriptions of the End of Days. Whether the trials and tribulations of exile were represented as part of the
Dr.
Religion
31 September 2010
Time Concepts on the Judaism, Christianity, and Indigenous religion The concept of time is full of mystery, by instinct we feel that time cannot be stopped. We all exist in time, and everything is subject to time. It seems obvious that because we live in time, it is the prime measure of existence. As assumed by many philosophical and religious schools, no beginning or end can be attributed to time. To the different concepts of time we have sacred time and religious time. They come closest to what may be called cosmic time: the big time of the complete whole of the cosmic reality. Sacred time is the past, present and future collapsed in one eternal now making for our connectedness. Religious time is the time that is respected on religious grounds. It is usually bound to natural order by means of calendars, sundials and/or clock (-schedules). In the Jewish religion, Judaism, Jews have never perceived time as progressive, but rather as a fragmented line. Its parts-past, present, and future-were not perceived as a continuous process in which one stage is a sequel to its antecedents. The Past was the era of glory, philosophically-inclined Jews in the Middle Ages perceived themselves as inferior in virtue to preceding generations. This inferiority complex was not simply a reflection of the general medieval view of history as an ongoing process, but rather a specific Jewish belief that the ancient Hebrews had the advantage of political independence in their own land, while the spiritual resources of “modern” Jews were depleted in exile and dispersion. The Present was the long era of Exile, Its beginning was a well-defined point in time; the destruction of the Second Temple, “but its end was shrouded in mist” (Lyman 15), as rabbinical Judaism rejected all eschatological calculations or detailed descriptions of the End of Days. Whether the trials and tribulations of exile were represented as part of the