Time&Eternity

No Concept of Time without Narrated Time 57
the fact that—assuming that the dance is not over-choreographed—it allows
space for movement and spontaneity.
Whenever time is narrated, there is always some concern about overcoming
its negative aspects, controlling its destructive powers, and creating
an order in which one can live. Thus, a worldview defines itself to a great
extent by its underlying concept of time or eternity. The most significant
change that the study of church hymns has clearly shown is the decline of
the perspective of eternity. Eternity has been forced to relinquish its privileged
position. Thanks to its dominance, it once made time a more or less comfortable
prelude to actual reality, namely, life in an eternity beyond time.
Now it instead has the task of making time worth living. Eternity lends
hope to time. One of the reasons for this development can surely be found
in the fact that a hope for eternity that naturally limits itself to saving of the
souls of Christians who have died becomes suspicious at the moment when
people become more conscious of the totality of creation. The observation
of cultural and religious diversity in the human sphere, as well as the knowledge
of the connection between the spirit and the body and also between
culture and nature—not least of all that forced upon us by the experiences
of nuclear and ecological threats—altered the perspective. If eternity is no
longer merely a question of the future for Christian souls, but rather must
also include the liberation of all of creation, of the entire universe, then a
new perspective arises. All simple before-and-after schemes must be eliminated.
In their place, the relations between time and eternity are increasingly
becoming the subject of hermeneutical interest. The sense that this entails
not merely a single relation, but rather a variety of relations, is
becoming more pronounced.
The time-eternity relation thereby appears richer. Eternity is more than
simply that which comes after time. It can also be conceived of as something
that affects time and lends it a new quality. However, the attempts to
bring time and eternity together conceptually go in such different directions
that the confusing impression that readily arises can hardly be conveyed by
my attempts at systematization. In spite of this ambiguity, it is theologically
important to make the interaction between time and eternity into a central
theme. Precisely with respect to the changing of eternity into an inner-temporal
factor of hope, one must reflect upon its possible significance: Wherein
lies the authority of eternity today? How sharp must the distinction between
time and eternity be in order to attain an appropriate concept of
time? Can one understand time without considering the relationship to “an
other” of time, i.e., to eternity? What does it mean when eternity becomes
essentially meaningless?
Losing the perspective of eternity leads to a concentration on time as the