Ramdas Lamb. Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, and Culture. Editor: H James Birx. Sage Publications. 2009.
Religious beliefs and cultural traditions set the tenor for the way humans conceive the individual self, the world, and the relationship between the two. Integral to these beliefs are the various conceptualizations of time, a necessary element in any attempt to explain human existence. Although each religious culture’s understanding tends to have unique aspects, nevertheless most follow one of two basic ways in which time has been and continues to be conceived. These are time as a line and time as a circle. Linear time is apparent in daily life. Birth is followed by growth, aging, decay, and death. Time always seems to move ever forward in a straight line. Yet the cycles of life, as seen in stars, seasons, animal migrations, and so forth, are also readily apparent. Nature exists in cycles. Both images thereby play important roles in the way humans conceive time, and in the vast majority of traditions, there is a blending of the two, with one tending to be dominant. While linear time commands the greatest attention in the Abrahamic religious traditions, in the Westernized urban world, and in science, cyclical time has been integral to most indigenous and most Asian religious and cultural traditions. This entry examines the roots and basis for these conceptualizations of time in various religious traditions and how they effect the beliefs and practices of the people who adhere to them.
Indigenous Traditions
Indigenous peoples have typically lived in a world in which the physical and spiritual realms are closely connected. Their cosmogonic myths, or origin stories, explain their beliefs regarding Creation and validate their own origins as well as their connection to each other, to their homeland, to the creator spirit or spirits, and to the spirits of their ancestors. These and other myths validate traditional practices, social mores, and even political order, and provide members a sense of belonging to a community and a place, a sense of order and consistency, and a set of religious beliefs and behavioral guidelines. This is why land, ethnicity, culture, and religious beliefs all intertwine with indigenous peoples. Time and space are a part of most Creation stories as well, and each has its sacred characteristics. Often associated with origin stories are eschatological beliefs regarding end times, and together they form an integral part of most religious traditions and indigenous cultures. Such stories and beliefs in nearly all traditions derive from the basic longing in humans to have some sense of their origins, identities, and destinies. In speculating on both beginnings and finalities, there also tends to be an understanding of time that mixes linear and cyclical elements. These are not confined to indigenous traditions and can be found in nearly every religious belief system, in one form or another.
The homelands of indigenous peoples are typically marked by sacred space and infused with the presence of spirits. The intimate relationship between individual and land is vital to self-identity. To the extent that this relationship is physical and material, it exists within time, has a beginning and an end, and is temporal. To the extent that it exists as connection with the world of spirits and ancestors, it exists outside physical time, and is secure, more permanent, and sacred. It enhances both stability and a sense of timeless belonging. Traditions help maintain this relationship, for through them each subsequent generation forms an unbroken connection back to the original ancestors and their primordial beginnings.
Rituals also play an important role in this connection. During ritual, the linear motion of time is suspended, and a communion with the eternal is made. Some rites, known as rituals of return, may take participants back to the time when scared events occurred or may bring the past into the present with Creation happening again and sacred events being replayed. They afford the opportunity for individual and community to experience the original state of purity and a reaffirmation of oneness with the eternal and everpresent world of the unseen spirit. Such rituals display a belief either in the ability to reverse time or that sacred time is eternal and can be experienced at any moment. Scholars have speculated that the Mesopotamian peoples chanted their Creation myth, the Enuma Elish, every new year for this purpose, for even the recitation of sacred stories is believed to return individuals to sacred moments and sacred time. This cyclical understanding of time is reflected in several ancient calendars in cultures as diverse as those of the Aztecs, the Babylonians, the Chinese, and the Norse.
This close-knit relationship between the spiritual, natural, and human realms and between past and present helps confirm individuals as members of their communities and provides them a sense of belonging to the world in which they live. Rituals and myths work together to reaffirm this connection, and also to take one beyond the limits of linear time and give one access to the realm of eternity where the sacred becomes manifest. Adherence to tradition maintains the relationship and keeps members of the community inoculated from the dangers and evils that exist outside. However, it may also close adherents to those who exist outside their communities and belief systems.
Abrahamic Traditions
In the ancient Middle East, there were a variety of religious cults and cultures that followed the indigenous modeling of time, seeing it cyclically, and that also believed in a close connection between the world of humans and that of the spirits and ancestors. In early Greece, several time concepts were prevalent. Both Pythagorus and Plato saw time as cyclical and repetitive. Hesiod viewed it as cyclical, repetitive, and also episodic, believing that the present universe will come to an end after humans pass through five different stages, only to begin again. Pherecydes of Syros, a 6th century BCE Greek philosopher and cosmologist, developed his own views of the beginning of the universe and was the first in the Western world to elaborate a concept of transmigration of an eternal soul. He presented Chronos (time) as one of the three eternal divinities in his writings, which clearly suggest a cyclical view of time.
With the development of Judaism, the first of the major Abrahamic religious traditions, the concept of time as predominantly linear began to gain acceptance in the Middle East. This view originates for Jews in the biblical Book of Genesis. Yahweh, most likely a clan deity who eventually came to be seen as the one almighty, created the universe and everything in it in 6 days. Although humans are created during this time, they are shown to stand apart from the rest of Creation, not a part of it. Once Creation is complete, it is the duty of humans to oversee it and keep it functioning within the framework of Yahweh’s commandments, while he oversees Creation’s linear progression. He is very much a part of the historical process, is affected by human actions and events that occur in his Creation, and occasionally becomes involved in influencing outcomes. On one hand, he is shown to be loving and compassionate, but on the other, he also gets angry and revengeful. He has favorites, whom he blesses, and others whom he condemns.
As a consequence of the belief in the Divine’s intimate involvement in the world and in time, all three Abrahamic religions conceive of a sacred history, especially when revelations and/or special events have happened in the development of their respective traditions. Their growth and their contemporary manifestations are tied to their understanding of sacred time and history, and its chronological unfolding factors heavily into their belief systems as well as their respective understanding of self, community, and relationship to their conception of the Divine. It is no coincidence that the counting and measuring of time became an important point of focus for the scientific thinkers and theologians within these religions. In the 6th century CE, the Christian calendar was formulated to begin with what 6th century Christian scholar Dionysius Exiguus thought to be the year of the birth of Jesus (1 AD). The Muslim calendar begins with the year of the departure of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina and the official beginning of Islam (1 AH ). The implication is that whatever happened before is, at best, of little relevance in comparison to what has happened since. Significant and sacred time begins with religions’ respective beginnings.
Judaism
The Abrahamic approach to time and the Divine begins with Judaism, which was the first of the major religious traditions to formally adopt the linear concept of time. One of the purported reasons the ancient Hebrews rejected the prevalent concept of cyclical time was to separate themselves and their tradition from the polytheistic beliefs of the day. Unlike the pagan gods of other religions, Yahweh was believed to manifest himself to his people in historical time, giving it a sacred dimension. As Judaism crystallized into an established religious tradition in the region, its beliefs came to have a great influence over subsequent generations of both Jews and non-Jews.
Early biblical interpreters believed that time has always existed, while medieval Jewish philosophers held that time began along with universe at the moment of Creation. Not only did Judaism present its own approach to time, it also asserted a special relationship between its followers and Yahweh. This relationship is expressed in the concept of Jews as chosen people, a belief that has long been fundamental to Jewish self-identity as an ethnic and religious community. Yahweh has singled them out for a special purpose, and thus all subsequent events in the history of the Jews are key to the history of the world and of humanity. The concept of linear time is fundamental to explaining the evolution of this relationship and of the pivotal events that occur in history. Jewish prophecies have suggested that all the sufferings their community has experienced in the last two millennia have had a greater purpose, for the Jews are God’s chosen, and God will use them to eventually establish his wisdom and righteousness on earth.
The Hebrew peoples of the first millennium BCE lived in independent theocracies in the lands of Israel and Judah and were free to practice their beliefs. However, once those lands were taken over by surrounding empires, they began to hold forth hope for a messiah, a Jewish king and spiritual leader, to return control of their homeland and reestablish the supremacy of their beliefs there. The messiah was to be God’s vehicle for ending their oppression, hunger, illness, and death, and to bring about happiness for Jews and the rebuilding of their temple in Jerusalem. Their sacred stories assured them that when the messiah makes his presence manifest, barren land will be made fruitful, all weapons will be destroyed, and peace will prevail for the entire world. His appearance will validate biblical prophecies, prophecies that are embedded in linear time. This expectation continued for more than 2,000 years for most Jews, and for many it continues up to the present day. It has been a unifying concept and a hope that has been instrumental in the Jewish community’s survival.
Christianity
Amidst the social and political turmoil of the Middle East 2 millennia ago, Jesus was born in the Jewish community that was under Roman rule in the land of Judah. The influence of his Jewish upbringing on his thinking is obvious. The New Testament’s presentation of his views shows a similarity in many ways to those of the Hillelite Pharisaic school of Judaism, and the understanding of time is clearly linear. Like the Jews, he saw God as functioning within historical time, although his description of God’s personality traits suggests more compassion and less strictness in judgment. Nevertheless, the view of a historical, revengeful, and preferential God who condemns is there as well. Many of the early followers of Jesus believed him to be the Jewish messiah, and thus expected his imminent return after his crucifixion, as per his own apparent prophecies and teachings. This belief came to be a bedrock of Christianity, and like the Jews, Christians await their messiah’s return as a fulfillment of historical prophecy. Because Jews did not recognize Jesus as the messiah predicted in their scriptures, Christianity taught that Jews lost their status as chosen people, relinquishing it instead to Christians as the true inheritors of the biblical label and of the special relationship with God in history and in prophecy.
Although they separated from Judaism, Christians nevertheless continued to adhere to many elements of Jewish thinking, including the view of time as linear, the belief that humans are uniquely separate from and above the rest of Creation, and the view that God functions within time and with human characteristics, including such traits as revenge, hatred, and condemnation. They also adopted the concept of a divine plan for the world, one in which good will ultimately overcome evil. Such a view is predicated upon the belief in a linear time and the fundamental role that God has given the chosen people in fulfilling that plan. Among the theological and doctrinal additions of Christianity was the eschatological belief in an eternal heaven and an eternal hell, the former reserved for faithful Christians, the latter for everyone else. Integral to this belief and process is the expectation of the return of Jesus as messiah, although Christians differ among themselves as to when and how. During the last 2 millennia, heightened anticipation of the return of Jesus has happened at a rate of more than once every generation, and these have been especially prevalent at the end of each millennium. Toward the end of the 1990s, for example, there were dozens of such expectations. Most were quite benign and resulted only in disappointment for their followers. A few, such as the Heaven’s Gate cult, led to deadly consequences. Begun in the 1970s in Oregon, the followers of this cult believed that Jesus would return along with a comet just before the end of the millennium. In order for their souls to unite with him, 38 members committed suicide in conjunction with the appearance of the Hale-Bopp Comet in 1997.
Currently, there are two primary Christian eschatological interpretations of time. The first is known as premillennialism, and it has been the more prevalent view in the vast majority of the more recent messianic expectations in the last century or so. Its adherents tend to draw heavily on an interpretation of the Hebrew Bible (Daniel 9:24–27) and the New Testament (Revelations 20:1–7) in believing that Christ, as the messiah, will return to the earth to defeat the Antichrist, reign here for 1,000 years before the final judgment of humanity, and then return to heaven with the saved. As they have countless times in the past, many premillennialists see the signs that foretell the imminent reappearance of Jesus occurring today, and various publications interpret these signs and events as proof of his impending return. Among these is the Left Behind series, a set of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, that supports a premillennialist view and has attracted countless Christian followers who hope to witness the glory of Jesus and the kingdom of God on earth in their lifetimes.
There are several postmillennialist beliefs as well, and each finds justification for its eschatological views in alternate interpretations of the same section of the Book of Revelation mentioned above. Generally speaking, postmillennialists believe that the return of Jesus will happen after 1,000 years (some understand this number symbolically) of gradual increase in the power of Christ and Christianity to bring about the kingdom of God in the world. The powers of Satan will be overcome, and he will be defeated for eternity. Jesus will then participate in final judgment, and there will be an end to history.
Islam
Muhammad was born in the late 6th century CE in the city of Mecca, and in 622 he began the religion of Islam, which is based primarily on his teachings as written in the Qur’an and the Hadith. The latter is a collection of stories about and teachings of Muhammad that were not included in the Qur’an. Both texts reveal the influence of Christianity and Judaism in his thinking as well as his reactions to them and their teachings. Like the Jews, he considered Abraham as his ancestor and Jerusalem as a holy city. Initially, he had his followers face in the direction of Jerusalem when they prayed, but later, due to a subsequent conflict with Jews, he had Muslims face toward Mecca for their prayers instead. Muhammad accepted essential aspects of the Genesis Creation story, strict monotheism, the ability of humans to receive divine revelation, the existence of angels and demons, many Jewish dietary rules, and the linear understanding of time. Like Jews, he rejected image worship and polytheism. With regard to Christianity, there are many stories about Jesus in the Qur’an, including his birth to a virgin, his teachings, and his miracles. Muhammad considered him a special prophet of God, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, is given great praise in the Qur’an, where she is mentioned more than in the New Testament. Islam accepts the concepts of a paradise and a place of damnation. Both are seen to exist in time, for eternity.
Prior to Islam, the tribes who lived in and around the Arabian peninsula followed time through observations of the solar and lunar cycles. However, they did not have a formalized concept of the year, nor did they count years as such. The past was marked by significant events. Like the Jews, Arabs considered sunset as the beginning of a day. Muhammad initiated a strict adherence to the 12-month lunar year, and ever since the time of his second successor, Umar, it has been followed by the religious orthodox in Islam. Some scholars believe Muhammad did this because the periodic interdiction of a 13th month to bring lunar and solar calendars together was important to the various “pagan” cults and festivals in and around Mecca at the time, and he wanted to end all practices associated with them. Over the centuries, there have been various attempts to adjust the Islamic calendar to align with the solar year or with the agricultural seasons, but none have been able to find a great following among Muslims.
In Islam, all reality, including time, is based on and under the complete control of Allah. Because Allah exists beyond time, he is timeless, while humans are caught in the cycle of time. History and human existence unfold relative to Allah’s will, thus both are important in Islam. The Qur’an emphasizes the omnipotence of Allah and suggests a form of predestiny, or at least precognition. In the Hadith, there is reference to a heavenly book, in which everything that happens is written. This notion of predestiny became a fundamental doctrine in several Muslim schools. Allah is said to preordain what will occur in the world, while humans simply act it out. He decides what will take place in every moment with every being, from the time they are in the womb until they breathe their last breath. At the same time, however, Islam holds humans personally responsible for their actions.
Understanding and tracking time became an important function in Islam, because Allah is believed to be very much involved in time and history and is in the continual process of creation. Medieval mosques often had on their staffs an individual (muwaqqtt) whose job it was to measure time. Early Muslim philosophers believed the world to be temporal, while later thinkers describe an eternal physical Creation. Both views remain dependent on linear time as the vehicle through which Allah oversees and controls existence.
Like Christians, many Muslims believe that in order for the Divine Will to prevail in the world, everyone must convert to their way of believing. Time will then take on a new and spiritual dimension. This has been the justification for both traditions to proselytize throughout the world and to seek to subdue alternative religious belief systems, all of which are said to be obstacles to the fulfillment of the divine plan. Similar to Jewish and Christian messianic expectations, Twelver Shiites, members of the dominant sect of Islam in Iran, also believe in a messiahlike figure who will usher in this new reality. His name is al-Mahdi. He was the 12th imam, or spiritual leader, in the lineage begun by Ali, the son-in-law and younger cousin of Muhammad. Al-Mahdi is said to have disappeared at the age of 5, after leading the funeral prayers of his father, the 11th imam. Twelver Muslims believe that the reappearance of al-Mahdi will bring about peace and justice in the entire world. Adopting the evangelizing approach of the Christian church, Islam began its own method of spreading its version of time, reality, and the Divine, and converting the people in all the lands its armies conquered.
All three Abrahamic religious traditions believe in the importance of ordering the world toward the fulfillment of their respective eschatological expectations. This is especially so in Christianity and Islam. In the case of fundamentalists from both traditions, this desire can lead to dire consequences for those who are judged as nonbelievers. The medieval Inquisition is a good Christian example, while the more radical Muslim fanatics of the last several decades represent a contemporary example of a similar ideological mindset. Tied in with the eschatological beliefs of the Abrahamic traditions is the view that the faithful individual has a responsibility to work toward making the world a better place. “Better,” however, typically means converting others to one’s own belief system, be it religious, political, social, or something else. Moreover, the molding of others’ beliefs and practices is, for many, necessary to help bring about or create the environment in which eschatological expectations can be fulfilled. Time, therefore, is a fundamental element in the cosmological and eschatological beliefs of both Christianity and Islam, and each generally believes that true followers will spend eternity with God or Allah in heaven, while all others will spend an eternity in a hell. Because both eternal salvation and eternal damnation would no longer have the same relevance if time were to cease, eternity is understood within the framework of a linear reality.
Dharma Traditions
Although they have much in common with indigenous traditions around the world, the dharma traditions, those that have their origins in the Indian subcontinent, tend to have a richer and more diverse conceptualization of time than is found in other belief systems. This is due in part to the long history of philosophical development in India. The typical understanding of time posits a broad and overarching cyclical movement, within which there exists a linear aspect. Whereas time is seen to move in an apparently linear fashion, in reality it moves in a circular one. It is similar to traveling down a straight road. While one appears to be heading in a linear direction, if one were to move along the road in the same direction long enough, one would return to the spot from which the journey began. In the same way, life moves in an apparently linear direction, but ultimately returns to its origin. As previously mentioned, a similar way of thinking can be found in ancient Greece.
One of the bigger differences between the dharma traditions and the Abrahamic traditions deals with eschatological beliefs. While Christianity and Islam seek acceptance of and compliance with a particular belief system and set of doctrines, such an approach is, for the most part, nonexistent in Asian religions, especially in the dharma traditions. In the latter, there is no concept of a deity who demands such compliance and who condemns to eternal hell all those who do not adhere. Instead, it is generally believed that everyone, eventually, will gain a release from the bondage of the birth/death cycle. This freedom is referred to by many names, such as kaivalya, nirvana, moksha, enlightenment, and liberation. Because it is a personal accomplishment, it is independent of what anyone else does. Therefore, there is no incentive to try to convince or coerce others into following one’s own beliefs, practices, or way of life as a requirement to gain that freedom. There is no need for missionaries to convert others. There is no eschatological view that is dependent upon world adherence to a particular path.
Origin stories are common in most Asian traditions as well, although events from the mythological past tend to have more symbolic than historic significance, because a linear chronology of world occurrences is far less significant than in the Abrahamic traditions. The dharma traditions—Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism—all believe in karma and in rebirth, in one form or another. Good actions lead to positive results, and bad actions lead to negative results. Although the concept presupposes cause and effect, goal orientation, and existence within a linear time frame, it conforms to the overall cycle concept of the traditions. Unlike the Christian and Muslim beliefs that certain actions, or lack thereof, result in damnation that will last an eternity, most Asian traditions reject any eternal state for the individual soul, other than liberation. In this regard, one of the unique aspects of the dharma traditions is the view that any reality confined within cyclical time is a form of imprisonment, from which one must ultimately free oneself. Thus, much of the philosophy and teachings within these traditions is geared to methods of escape from this endless cycle.
Hinduism
There are a variety of Hindu concepts of time, including various cosmogonies and eschatologies, but all fit into the overall concept of a cyclical reality. The earliest views date back to at least the Vedic period, more than 3 millennia ago. One of the oldest of the philosophical schools to propose a concept of time is Samkhya, in which there is an eternal and timeless duality, Purusha (male) and Prakriti (female). The former is seen as unchanging consciousness that underlies all existence, while the latter is the material reality that is ever-changing. Other views describe an episodic characteristic, with existence moving through four yugas, or cosmic ages, after which the universe and all Creation come to an end, including time. The resulting state is known as pralaya, of which there are several types and degrees of dissolution. Generally speaking, during this state, all form, all qualified existence, all differentiation, and all things that have a beginning will end; all that remains is Brahman, the unqualified eternal absolute. Although time ends as well, nevertheless, the state is said to last for several billion years. Here, everything that ever was and will be is in a state of potentiality. Then, Brahman again begins the Creation process, by first dividing itself into Brahma (the Creator), Vishnu (the Preserver), and Shiva (the Destroyer). The yugas begin anew, the cycle is in motion, and everything starts over again. According to some schools of Hindu philosophy, this will go on for eternity. The Puranas, a series of ancient texts, each have their own cosmology, but all tend to draw from the pattern above. Because of this, the goal of individual life is to get beyond attachment to the temporal, to all that comes to an end and to identify oneself instead with the deathless and endless absolute Divine.
Jainism
The Jain tradition acknowledges neither beginning nor end to the cosmos. Physical and nonphysical reality has always been and will always be. It continues in long cycles, during which there is a gradual fall of moral and physical existence followed by their reassertion. This process is believed to continue for eternity. All beings are bound within these cycles except those who are able to escape and become liberated. This can result only from the extinction of the interaction of the eternal soul with all that is nonsoul. The latter consists of time, matter, space, and inertia and is also eternal but constantly in flux. Karma is produced with every interaction and weighs down the soul and imprisons it. Once all karmic residue is annihilated, the soul becomes eternally liberated in the state of kaivalya. This freedom is the ultimate goal of life in Jainism, so methods for accomplishing this are essential aspects of Jain teachings. Those who are believed to have attained this state are the most revered beings within the tradition and are considered divine.
Buddhism
Gautama Buddha lived in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE in India, and the tradition that follows him represents an important source of non-Brahmanical thinking in India in those early days. However, the Buddha wrote nothing, and in the 1,000 or so years that followed his death, a great number of texts were written that all claim to contain his teachings. As a consequence, there is a diversity of views regarding origins, destinies, and time within the tradition. Some texts have elaborate cosmologies; others either do not address the issue or present a fairly simplified version. Some schools within the tradition see these stories as metaphorical; others as real. However, all Buddhist schools traditionally see time as cyclical and liberation from the birth/death cycle as the ultimate goal.
As an example, the Agganna Sutta, a Theravada Buddhist text, tells of existence going through cycles of expansion and contraction, creation and dissolution. Desire, ego, and other such traits are what lead to creation and what bind an individual to countless rebirths. When one follows the teachings of the Buddha, such as the Eightfold Path, then one is able to step outside the cycle of birth and death and attain nirvana, or liberation. Pure Land Buddhism, one of the largest of the Mahayana schools, believes in a heavenly realm known as the Pure Land, where those who remember Amitabha Buddha with faith will be reborn, rather than returning to the birth/death cycle on earth. Once there, they will remain to work out all their karma and will eventually gain the wisdom that will lead them to liberation. The Tibetan Buddhists have elaborated their view of cyclical time, which is expressed in the concept of bhavachakra, the “wheel of time.” In paintings, the wheel is held by Yama, the lord of death. It depicts the eternal cycle of life through which all beings pass until they reach liberation.
Sikhism
The Sikh tradition draws its cosmogonic views from the Guru Granth Sahib, the primary scripture of Sikhism, and one can see the influence of various Hindu concepts therein. There is the belief in a singular transcendent Divinity who is infinite and exists beyond time and place. At the same time, the Divine pervades all Creation and is omnipresent. Existence goes through countless cycles of creation and dissolution. When there is no creation, the Divine exists as the One. Because of Divine Will and through Divine Sound, creation occurs, and all existence becomes manifest. Eventually, all that is created will end, and only the one truth, the one Divine will remain. The goal of human life is to end lust, greed, anger, pride, and attachment to the material world, and to find spiritual union with the One.
Other Asian Traditions
Buddhism, and to some extent Hinduism, has had such a predominant effect on thinking throughout Asia that it is sometimes difficult to separate its influence from those of the indigenous traditions in many Asian religious cultures. However, the preBuddhist traditions of Confucianism and Taoism in China have definite non-Buddhist approaches to time.
Confucian time follows both a 12-month lunar cycle and a 12-year cycle, with each year associated with an archetypal animal. The number 12 is also important in the I Ching, one of the Five Classics in the Confucian religious tradition, and is connected with the zodiac and 12-year cycle. It is believed by many Chinese that learning to live in accordance with the changing energy and influences that occur throughout the 12 years will bring harmony and success to one’s life.
Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, had a very different approach. He wrote that the Tao preceded all existence. First there was the Tao, and from it came the One, then the two and the three, then the myriad of things—all Creation. As to what the Tao is, Lao Tzu says that no one can say; nevertheless, the goal is to be in harmony with it and to find balance of yin and yang, the dualistic aspects of material existence and nature. Taoists believe that aligning one’s life and being in accordance with the Tao will raise one’s consciousness of reality and experience of the Tao. There are no eschatological views in either Confucianism or Taoism as such.
The Shinto tradition in Japan reveals a blend of linear and cyclical thinking. There is a clear cosmogonic belief, as expressed in the Kojiki, the most important text in the tradition. However, there is no eschatological belief. Creation happened, it will continue, and it does so in cycles. A ritual that occurs at the most sacred shrine at Ise reveals the Shinto view of time, tradition, and change. The temple there is rebuilt every 20 years using the exact design that was used to build the original shrine in the 3rd century CE. The sacred items within the old shrine are then moved to the new one. Thus, every generation has a new shrine, but each one is an exact duplicate of the original. The newness of each generation is thereby acknowledged, but it is encouraged to be a continuation of the traditions of its elders. In this way linear and cyclical time are blended together.
Conclusion
The concept of time is understood in vastly different ways in the various religious traditions and cultures of the world. Most of these views originate in cosmogonic myths that are meant to provide their followers a sense of self and place in their social communities, in their homelands, and in their world. Along with inspiring feelings of pride of self, origin stories occasionally lead to xenophobic attitudes and may also be used to justify aggression against outsiders, but this has not been historically common. Eschatological beliefs, on the other hand, have the greatest potential for causing conflict between groups, especially when such beliefs include within them the need for followers to evangelize outside their own community of believers. Yet, with the exception of Buddhism and some elements of other traditions, nonAbrahamic religions that follow cyclical time have not traditionally manifested a need to convert others to their way of thinking and being. Moreover, many such traditions have considered outsiders as inherently unqualified to be a part of their religious and cultural communities, due to ethnic or geographic restrictions that are embedded in their belief systems.
For those who follow the linear view of time, such as the adherents of the Abrahamic traditions, science, and the Westernized urban view of the world, the situation has been quite different. These belief systems place humans outside, above, and in control of the cyclical realm of nature. They also tend to promote a similar attitude toward adherents of a cyclical worldview, such as indigenous peoples and the followers of most Asian religious traditions. Followers of linear time have typically characterized cyclical cosmogonies as contrived and unrealistic, as the products of childish fantasy, and even as pagan heresy. They have also depicted the followers of cyclical time in a similarly negative way. Such views have usually been carried by Christian and Muslim missionaries in their in proselytizing activities around the world. Working tirelessly in their evangelizing efforts, they have often sought to diminish and even obliterate other cultures and belief systems and replace them with their own worldviews, sectarian beliefs, lifestyles, and conceptualizations of God and time. Thus, adherents of a linear view of time are gradually but inevitably replacing the cyclical view of time with their own, and many of the more extreme individuals and groups that are active in this process do so with the belief and even the hope that their efforts will lead to a fulfillment of their own eschatologies, and to an imminent end of the world as we know it.