Linear Time & Progress

A long tradition of scholarship in intellectual history (Thorleif Boman, Mircea Eliade and others) credits ancient Hebrew thought with conceiving history as linear, purposeful and directed toward a hoped-for future, in contrast with the cyclical time common in many ancient cultures. This biblical view — creation, covenant and a movement toward redemption — is widely argued to be a root of later Western ideas of progress, freedom and hope. It is presented here as a scholarly thesis about a Jewish contribution to world thought, not as an absolute claim, and it originates in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish tradition.