Editing Christian mythology (section)

==Attitudes toward time==
[[Image:Ezekiel's vision.jpg|right|thumb|One traditional depiction of the [[cherubim]] and chariot vision, based on the description by [[Ezekiel]].]]
According to [[Mircea Eliade]], many traditional societies have a cyclic sense of time, periodically reenacting mythical events.<ref>Eliade, ''Myths, Rites, Symbols'', vol. 1, 72–73</ref> Through this reenactment, these societies achieve an "[[Eternal Return (Eliade)|eternal return]]" to the mythical age.<ref>Wendy Doniger, Forward to Eliade, ''Shamanism'', xiii</ref> According to Eliade, Christianity retains a sense of cyclical time, through the ritual commemoration of Christ's life and the imitation of Christ's actions; Eliade calls this sense of cyclical time a "mythical aspect" of Christianity.<ref>Eliade, ''Myths, Rites, Symbols'', vol. 1, 78</ref>

However, [[Judeo-Christian]] thought also makes an "innovation of the first importance", Eliade says, because it embraces the notion of linear, historical time; in Christianity, "time is no longer [only] the circular Time of the Eternal Return; it has become linear and irreversible Time".<ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', 65. See also Eliade, ''Myths, Rites, Symbols'', vol. 1, 79</ref> Summarizing Eliade's statements on this subject, Eric Rust writes, "A new religious structure became available. In the Judaeo-Christian religions — Judaism, Christianity, Islam — history is taken seriously, and linear time is accepted. […] The Christian myth gives such time a beginning in creation, a center in the Christ-event, and an end in the final consummation."<ref>Rust 60</ref>

In contrast, the myths of many traditional cultures present a cyclic or static view of time. In these cultures, all the "[important] history is limited to a few events that took place in the mythical times".<ref>Eliade, ''Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries'', p. 190</ref> In other words, these cultures place events into two categories, the mythical age and the present, between which there is no continuity. Everything in the present is seen as a direct result of the mythical age:
<blockquote>"Just as modern man considers himself to be constituted by [all of] History, the man of the archaic societies declares that he is the result of [only] a certain number of mythical events."<ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', pp. 11–12</ref></blockquote>
Because of this view, Eliade argues, members of many traditional societies see their lives as a constant repetition of mythical events, an "[[Eternal return (Eliade)|eternal return]]" to the mythical age: <blockquote>"In ''imitating'' the exemplary acts of a god or of a mythical hero, or simply by recounting their adventures, the man of an archaic society detaches himself from profane time and magically re-enters the Great Time, the sacred time."<ref>Eliade, ''Myths, Dreams, and Mysteries'', p. 23</ref></blockquote>

According to Eliade, Christianity shares in this cyclic sense of time to an extent. "By the very fact that it is a religion", he argues, Christianity retains at least one "mythical aspect" — the repetition of mythical events through ritual.<ref>Eliade, ''Myth and Reality'', pp. 168–69</ref> Eliade gives a typical church service as an example:<blockquote>"Just as a church constitutes a break in plane in the profane space of a modern city, [so] the service celebrated inside [the church] marks a break in profane temporal duration. It is no longer today's historical time that is present — the time that is experienced, for example, in the adjacent streets — but the time in which the historical existence of Jesus Christ occurred, the time sanctified by his preaching, by his passion, death, and resurrection."<ref>Eliade, ''The Sacred and the Profane'', p. 72</ref></blockquote>

[[Heinrich Zimmer]] also notes Christianity's emphasis on linear time; he attributes this emphasis specifically to the influence of Augustine of Hippo's theory of history.<ref>Zimmer 19</ref> Zimmer does not explicitly describe the cyclical conception of time as itself "mythical" per se, although he notes that this conception "underl[ies] Hindu mythology".<ref>Zimmmer 20</ref>

Neil Forsyth writes that "what distinguishes both Jewish and Christian religious systems […] is that they elevate to the sacred status of myth narratives that are situated in historical time".<ref>Forsyth 9</ref>