Home Howard Snyder Bible and Culture Is History Linear or Cyclical?
Is History Linear or Cyclical?
It is not accurate to say the Bible gives us a linear, not cyclical, worldview or view of history. Scripture combines both.
God's redemptive revelation breaks the cycle of pagan worldviews but maintains and redeems the cycles of the created order. This in fact is a key aspect of biblical revelation: Redeeming the cycles of "nature" (seasons, agriculture, sun, moon, stars, human birth and death) from pagan understandings and idolatry and attempted manipulation through rituals, magic, and sacrifices.
It is of course true that biblical history and revelation is linear – God's covenant and promises are moving ahead in history; the Kingdom of God in fullness is a certain promise. In his resurrection Jesus broke and defeated the cycles of death and destruction. But what he introduced is not straight-line "progress" into the future but rather dynamic cycles of life and healing that will redeem and heal all the proper, necessary, ecological cycles of the dynamic created order.
Important to add, lest my post be misunderstood.