Time&Eternity

notes to chapter 1 255
363,5, text by Johann Franck (1653) and Petrus Brask (1690); the expression “att gå ur
tiden” (to leave time) has been added here by Britt G. Hallqvist (1983) as a replacement for
“när en ände sker på mitt elände” (when the end of my misery comes), see Svps1937 137,8;
here, “elände” can also have the older meaning of “banishment, exile,” cf. Selander, O hur
saligt att få vandra, 107. In Sv ps 519,3, the expression “jag blir ur tiden tagen” (I am being
taken from time) was also inserted by Britt G. Hallqvist (1983) or Lars Lindman (1981) into
the original text by J. O. Wallin (1818); here, as a replacement for “Snart är .l.l. min själ
ifrån mig tagen” (soon my soul will be taken from me), see Svps1937 403,7.
364. “We want to live and assert ourselves. / But we risk your freedom. / We want the
world to arrange itself according to our will. / Self-righteously, we build the tower of
time,” EG 360,3, text by Christa Weiss (1965). This hymn inspired A. Frostenson to write
the text of Sv ps 289 (Belfrage, Guds kärlek är som stranden, 7f.). Sv ps 289, in turn, became
known in German translation as “Herr, deine Liebe ist wie Gras und Ufer” (Lord, your
love is like grass and seashore) and was then included, as number 663, in the final version
of the EG.
365. “Let your grace, O Lord, prevail over the law; / release us from yesterday and tomorrow,”
EG 360,5.
366. Augustine held that the “present, should it always be present, and never pass into
time past, would no longer be time, but indeed eternity.” Confessiones xi.14.17.
367. For definitions of these concepts, see pp. 15–17.
368. These faces can be experienced as completely negative. Cf. Benktson, who, in his
book on the problems of time, distinguishes four faces of time in the novels of Swedish
writer Lars Gyllensten, namely, elapsing time, empty time marked by ennui, destructive
time, and unavailable time. Samtidighetens mirakel, 45–81.
369. 140–44. Gronemeyer discusses in detail the thesis that Western civilization has
developed out of terror of death and excessive fear of failure. Its response to the fear of
death is the attempt to safeguard the individual lifespan to the maximum degree possible;
it confronts the fear of failure with the attempt to outwit time by a terrific acceleration of
life’s tempo.
370. “Mit der Zukunft, jedenfalls mit jener, die ihren Namen zu Recht trägt, weil sie
das, was ungemacht und ungeplant auf uns ‘zukommt’, enthält, hat sich ‘homo accelerandus’
gründlich überworfen. Er hat dem unberechenbaren und unvorhersehbaren Noch-
Nicht einen Gestellungsbefehl erteilt: die Zukunft hat in der Gegenwart zu erscheinen,”
ibid., 144.
371. Cf. Boethius, De consolatione Philosophiae iv.4. Punishment means that the evil
person can be freed of his or her malice; something just (thus, good) is thereby granted to
the evil one, thus lessening the tragedy. Such a notion is conclusive only if one presupposes
an indisputable primacy of eternity over all temporality.
372. Thus also Gronemeyer, Das Leben als letzte Gelegenheit, 147ff.
Chapter 2
1. Ratschow, Anmerkungen zur theologischen Auffassung des Zeitproblems (Remarks
Concerning the Theological Conception of the Problem of Time).
2. Ratschow, ibid., 362, sees rudimentary demonic conceptions in linguistic expressions
such as time eats, gnaws, acts, heals. Also, the Greek god Chronos “devoured” his
children.
3. Ratschow understands Kant’s philosophy of time as related to the “Dämon der
Vergänglichkeit und dem Schicksal des Wandels” (demon of transitoriness and the destiny
of change”), ibid., 362f.