I really enjoyed this article on how different cultures and religions conceptualise time. I would, however, dispute the author's claim
that Christianity is based on a linear conception of time. A more accurate characterisation
would be that Christ ‘closes the loop’ by transforming the finality of death
into the beginning of life. Surely this is what the Christian doctrine of ‘eternal
life’ signifies. Indeed, the author cites Jesus’ claim, reported in the book of
Revelation, to be “the beginning and the end”; but, curiously, she does so to
support her assessment of Christianity as linear.
Christianity also contains elements of the ‘place-based’
conception of time which the author attributes to indigenous religions.
There is of course the Holy Land, with its prophetic significance, but numerous
locations in the Bible are accorded a certain timeless quality in which events
spanning the epochs somehow merge into a single pattern of experience.
I’m not saying that Christians all or always embrace a
circular, spiral, or place-based view of time – and when they do, it is not
always for the best. But we should remember that, contrary to the author’s
implication, Christianity is not really a ‘Western’ religion at all. It began
in the Middle East, of course, and – at the risk of introducing some
cartographical confusion, but also in the hope of demonstrating the ironic crudeness
of dividing the world into East and West – there now are about 50% more
Christians in the ‘Global South’ than the ‘Global North’.
Anyway, worth a read.
