Time&Eternity

216 chapter 4
continuity and discontinuity. Discontinuity is expressed in the attempt to
take alterity seriously. Before the reign of God is given expressive forms that
can be received by human beings, it is initially always that which breaks
through, that which breaks off, and that which breaks in. Continuity is expressed
in the persistent attempt to conceive of the discontinuous at least in
terms of a solid confirmation that—even in the face of the most extreme
discontinuity (death)—a relation of human/world/God is possible. 165
Here, however, we have reached the limits of what can be clearly stated.
Knowing about the radicality of discontinuity, we are unable to speak of
discontinuity without images of continuity. The two stand next to each other,
yet they are impossible to harmonize. Hymns seem to have the capacity
of expressing this. For example, Paul Gerhardt finds beautiful images for
both aspects. In the following text, he speaks clearly of the discontinuity in
the annihilatio mundi:
The human being,
what has it been?
In one hour
it is destroyed, as soon as
the tiny breath of death blows into it.
Everything must collapse and fall,
heaven and earth must become,
what they were before their creation 166
In another hymn, he talks eloquently about the opposite. In the face of
the summer splendor of nature and the flower garden, he presupposes heavenly
continuity:
The mother hen parades her little chicks,
the stork builds and inhabits his house .l.l.
The indefatigable swarm of bees flies hither and yon, .l.l.
The wheat grows vigorously;
both young and old rejoice in this .l.l.
Oh, I think, how beautiful you are
and you give us so much pleasure here .l.l.
What great pleasure, what bright light
will well be in the Garden of Christ! 167
What the poetry of the hymns exemplifies also applies to rational discourse:
The two concepts of continuity and discontinuity should not be
locked away in a closed system. 168 The unresolved tension between them
provides eschatological movement and openness.