Cyclical Time

The Fourth Turning is a book of prophecy, so it naturally concerns the future. As such, it also appeals to events in the past and present to predict the future. Time is center stage. However, the authors have an argument to make: the West has lost a crucial understanding of time in the last several centuries. For the last few centuries, Westerns have understood time as 'linear' - as always either progressing or regressing. The future builds on the past in a constant, often steady fashion. The notion of linear time follows an older understanding of cyclical time common to the Medieval, Roman and Greek periods in Western history. The authors argue that the cyclical understanding of time is more spiritual and transcendental. As a result, abandoning the cyclical view of time caused us to lose an understanding of the nature of the universe. We can only...