Page - 104 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 05/02

out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life” (Gen. 3:24). The exile of man out of Eden brings about the initial rift between divine time and earthly, linear time, reserved for humans. In the cultures of the East, mystical time is generally contained within earthly time. In Mesopotamia, human actions are a reproduction of a mythical model, a repetition of the actions of the gods or of the ancient ancestors.34 In cultures where the concept of time is cyclical, earthly time is not disconnected from mys- tical time. Every creation recreates the explicit cosmogenous act of creating the universe. To ensure the continued existence of reality, one must ritually re-en- act the divine act of creation, which means reverting to cosmic time. In these cultures, secular time has no meaning. Rituals combine the two kinds of time and make it so that during them man does not exist in meaningless secular time, since he is emulating a divine archetype.35 In Catholicism, mystical time is linked to the religious experience.36 The Church promised unconditional love to all those who took refuge under its wing and offered humanity a way to believe that God loves us and has forgiven us. The universe was a simple place to understand: man stood at its centre with heaven or hell as his future destination, in the promised mystical time. The theological notion of time is not derived only from a fixed future, but comes also from the promise of salvation as the Christian “Realized Eschatology”37 largely explains. With the acceleration of secularization processes in Europe at the end of the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance,38 humanity’s longing for mystical time diminished, whereas linear, earthly time became more and more significant. The loss of connection to this mystical, religious time happened gradually. In the agrarian, pre-industrial society, people lived according to the calm and reg- ular rhythm of the seasons and the calendar of agricultural work. The belief that beyond these time-marking events there was a realm of eternal time provided a 34 Eliade 1959, 22. 35 Funkenstein, 1991. 36 Christians believe in the end of days, when humanity will join the eternal, mystical time. The prophecy about the King of the end of days first appeared in the letter “On the Time and Place of the Appearance of the Antichrist”, sent by Adso, the abbot of Emperor Louis IV’s widow, in 954. The letter says that at the end of days the King of the Franks will rise up and unite the East and the West by conquering the Holy Land. As the end of miracles approaches, Gog and Magog will burst forth from the north but they will be defeated by the Christian King. After the victory, the King will ascend to the Mount of Olives, spread out his hands, lay down his crown and return his soul to the Creator. Then, after every authority and jurisdiction in Israel has been destroyed, Antichrist will be revealed and the events of the Apocalypse will begin. See Yali Haran 2005, 129. 37 “The salvation of individuals is the principal focus of the earlier New Testament writings. In Paul this salvation is both present and future; the two are closely linked” (Metzger/Coogan 1993, 670). 38 Arbel 2002, 87–88. 104 | Bina Nir www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/2, 95–116