Modern History as reinstatement of theSaeculum: A study in the semantics of history

On the distinction betweenres gestae andhistoria rerum gestarum, see Nathan Rotenstreich,Between Past and Present (New Haven, 1958), 1–26.

Richard Koebner, “Semantics and Historiography,”Cambridge Journal 7 (1953): 131–44; also R. Koebner, “Die Idee der Zeiwende,”Geschichte, Geschichtsbewusstsein und Zeitwende (Gerlingen, 1990).

Karl Löwith,Meaning in History (Chicago, 1949), chap. 11; O. Cullmann,Christus und die Zeit (Zürich, 1946); Rudolph Bultman,Geschichte und Eschatologie (Tübingen, 1958), and See also Shemaryahu Talmon, “Eschatology and History in Biblical Thought,”Literary Studies in the Hebrew Bible (Jerusalem, Leiden, 1993).

Saint Augustine,City of God (Modern Library, New York, 1950), bk. 20, 710.

Bernard Sticker, “Weltzeitalter und astronomische Perioden,”Saeculum, 4, 3 (1954), 241 pp; Jacqueline de Romilly,The Rise and Fall of States According to Greek Authors (Ann Arbor, 1977); A. Nisbet,Social Change and History (New York, 1969), 29–61; Mercea Eliade,Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return (1954);

Encyclopedia Judaica (Jerusalem, 1971), s.v. “Eschatology.”

Karl Löwith,Meaning in History, 18.

Herman Cohen,Die Religion der Vernunft aus den Quellen des Judentums (1919), 307.

See J. W. Swain, “The Theory of the Four Monarchies,”Classical Philology 35, 1 (1940): 1–21; Felix Stieve, “Die Perioden der Weltgeschichte,”Deutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, Sonderheft (München, 1893); Alfred Dove, “Der Streit des Mittelalters,”Historische Zeitschrift (HZ) 116 (1916): 209; for late Judaism and the Apocrypha, Louis F. Hartman, “Eschatology,”Encyclopedia Judaica and E Schürer, “Apocryphen des Alten Testament,”Realencyclopädie für Protestantische Theologie und Kirche. 3rd ed.

Karl Löwith, inMeaning in History for some reason does not discuss Apostolic times, but only the Patristic period and this according to Cullman,Christus und die Zeit (Zürich, 1946), 72, 99, whose attitudes and interpretation are absolutely different from those of the dialectical theology. See Rudolph Bultman,Geschichte und Eschatologie (Tübingen, 1958).

A. Nisbet,Social Change and History (New York, 1969), 85–63.

Ibid., bk. 14, 1–2 or “because some live according to man, other according to God” (Ibid., bk. 14, 4).

Augustine,City of God, bk. 15, 1.

Ibid., bk. 14, 4.

Ibid., bk. 23.

Ibid., bk. 20.

Ibid.

See Thompson,A History of Historical Writing vol. 1 (New York, 1942), chaps. XI–XVI; Peter Burke,The Renaissance Sense of the Past (New York, 1970); B. L. Ullman, “Leonardo Bruni and Humanistic Historiography,”Medivalia et Humanistica (Cleveland, 1946), 45–61.

See Eduard Fueter,Geschichte der Neueren Historiographie (München, 1936), 11–12; William J. Bowsma, “Three Types of Historiography in Post-Renaissance Italy,”History and Theory 4, 3 (The Hague, 1964): 306–9.

See G. H. Nadel, “Philosophy of History before Historicism,”History and Theory 3 (The Hague, 1963–1964): 299; G. H. J. W. Allen,A History of Political Thought in the 16th Century, part IV (New York, 1928); J. G. A. Pocock,The Macchiavellian Moment (Princeton, 1975); Felix Gilbert,Macchiavelli and Guicciardini, Politics and History in 16th Century Florence (Princeton, 1973); H. Butterfield,The Statecraft of Macchiavelli (London, 1955). See also the Introduction of John Plamenetz' edition ofThe Prince, Selections from the Discourses and Other Writing (London, 1972), 7–26; Beatrice Reynolds, “Shifting Currents in Historical Criticism,”Journal of Ideas 14, 4 (1953).

Peter Burke, “Tradition and Experience,”Daedalus 105, 3 (1976);

Randolph Starn, “Meaning-Levels in the Theme of Historical Decline,”History and Theory (The Hague, 1975), 14.

Löwith,Meaning on Vico and Hegel.

Jean Bodin, “Refutation of Those Who Postulate Four Monarchies and the Golden Age,”Method for the Easy Comprehension of History (New York, 1945); Francis Bacon,The Advancement, bk. 2, 1 (London, 1973), 2–111; see 153

Bacon,Advancement of Learning, bk. 2, bk. 2, II, 6.

See Johan Huizinga, “Das Problem der Renaissance,”Wege der Kulturgeschichte (München, 1930); Kosseleck,Vergangene Zukunft (Frankfurt a.M., 1979), 314; J. Huizinga, “Zur Geschichte des Begriffs Mittelalter,”Geschichte und Kultur (Stuttgart, 1959); Alfred Dove, “Der Streit um das Mittelalter,”Historisches Zeitsch, vol. 116 (1916);

Rudolf Stadelman, “Jacob Burckhardt und das Mittelalter,”Historisches Zeitsch, vol. 142 (1927).

See Konrad Burdach, “Sinn und Ursprung der Worte Renaissance and Reformation,” inReformation, Renaissance, Humanism (Darmstadt, 1963); Karl Borinski,Die Weltwiedergeburtsidee in den neueren Zeiten, Huizinga, “Das Problem der Renaissance,” ibid., 124ff.

Ibid., “Now is come the last age of Cumaean prophecy: The great cycle of periods is born anew ⋯ Now from high heaven a new generation comes down.” Quoted from Robert N. Niesbet,Social Change and History, 43.

See Fueter,Geschichte der neueren Historiographice, 186ff.

Thompson,History of Historical Writing, vol. 1, 528ff. OnCenturiae Magdenburgensis by Flaccius Illiricus and the works of Causabon

H. Spangenberg, “Die Perioden der Weltgeschichte,”HZ 127 (1927): 10–11; Karl F. Strohecker, “Um die Grenze Zwischen Antike und Abendländischen Mittelalter,”Saeculum 5 (The Hague, 1950); Herbert Butterfield,Man on His Past (Cambridge, 1969), 45–50; Ludwig Wachler,Geschichte der Historischen Forschung und Kunst seit der Wiederherstelung derselben (Göttingen, 1812).

R. Koebner, “Zur Begriffsbildung der Kulturgeschichte,”HZ 149 (1933–1934): 23–4.

See Herman Lübbe,Saekularisierung, Geschichte eines ideenpolitischen Begriiffs (Freiburg, 1965); Richard K. Fenn,Toward a Theory of Secularization, Society for the Study of Religion, monograph Series no. 1 (1978);

Hans Blumenberg,Die Legitimität der Neuzeit (Frankfurt a.M., 1966); Idem,Säkularisierung und Selbstbehauptung (Frankfurt, 1974); see also 190 .

See Ernst Troeltsch,Die Bedeutung des Protestantismus für die Entstehung der Modernen Welt (München, 1911); also his essays “Die Aufkärung” and “Die Moderne Welt,”Gesammelte Schriften 4 (Tübingen, 1925); see also R.H. Tawney, “The Medieval Background” inReligion and the Rise of Capitalism (London, 1937).

Ernst Troeltsch,The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, trans. Olive Wyon (New York, 1960), 7: 305–28.

W. Reinhard, “Modernism,” inLexicon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. M. Buicksberger, vol. 7 (Freiburg, 1964); also Arieli,Individualism and Nationalism (Harvard, 1964), part 2; Hans Blumenberg,Säkularisierung und Selbstbehauptung. Die Legitimität der Neuzeit (Frankfurt a.M., 1974).

Francis Bacon,Advancement of Learning, ed. G. W. Kitchin (London, 1973), bk. 1, 11–12; bk. 2, xxiii–xxiv; andThe New Organon in Francis Bacon,A Selection of His Works, ed. Sidney Warhaft (Indianapolis: The Odyssey Press, 1965), bk. 1 Aphorisms, lxxiv–lxxxiv and especially cxxix.

See Richard Koebner, “Die Idee der Zeiwende,”Geschichte, Geschichtsbewuustsein und Zeiwende (Bleicher Verlag Gerlingen, 1990), 179 ff; also Peter Gay,The Enlightenment: An Interpretation of the Rise of Modern Paganism (New York, 1967), 303–13; G. H. Nadel, “History as Psychology in Francis Bacon's Theory of History,”Essential Articles for the Study of Bacon, ed. Brian Vickers (Hamden, Connecticut, 1968), 243–48; G. H. Nadel, “Philosophy of History Before Historicism,”History and Theory 3 (1963–1964): 299.

New Organon 1, xcii.

New Organon 1, cxxix.

Paolo Rossi,Francis Bacon: From Magic to Science (Chicago, 1968); see R. F. Jones, Ancients and Moderns:A Study of the Background of the Battle of the Books (St. Louis, 1961); Peter Gay,The Enlightenment: An Interpretation (New York, 1967), 1: 308–21.

New Organon 1, cxxix; see also Richard Koebner, “Thomas Sprat — Historiker der Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge,” inGeschichte, 217ff.

SeeAdvancement of Learning, bk. 2, 69ff; see Ernst Cassierer, chap. 1, “The Mind of the Enlightenment,”The Philosophy of the Enlightenment (Princeton, 1951);

Voltaire: The Age of Louis XIV and Other Selected Writings, trans. by J. H. Brumfitt (New York: Twaine Publisher, 1963), 122.

See “Advice to a Journalist,” inThe Varieties of History, ed. Fritz Stern (New York, 1956), 36–37. D'Alembert,Eléments de Philosophie, as quoted in Cassierer, “The Mind of the Enlightment,”op cit., 3.

Kant, “Die Beantwortung Der Frage: Was ist Aufklärung?” inWerke, ed. Cassierer, 4: 169.

I have followed here the views and interpretations presented by Hans Blumenberg, inSäkularisierung und Selbstbebehauptung. Die Legimität der Neuzeit (Frankfurt a.M., 1974), 167, 177, 189–191. For Nominalism and its role in the rise of the sciences, see Wilhelm Windelband, AHistory of Philosophy (New York, 1958), 337 ff.

Blumenberg,Säkularisierung, 189–91.

Quoted by Blumenberg,Säkularisierung, 215–16; see G. W. F. Hegel,Lectures on the Philosophy of History, trans. J. Sibree (London, 1900), 476.

See Kant, “Ideen zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte weltbürgerlicher Absicht,”Schriften zur Geschichtsphilosophie (Stuttgart, 1974); also James W. Thompson, AHistory of Historical Writing (New York, 1942), 2: 107–114.

See Marquis de Condorcet,Outlines of a Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Mind (Philadelphia, 1796); R.R. Palmer,The Age of the Democratic Revolution (Princeton, 1959); Bernard Fay,L'Esprit révolutionaire en France et aux Etats-Unis (Paris, 1925). As for the development of the revolutionary messianic ideologies in Europe, see Jacob L. Talmon's trilogy:The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy (London, 1952);Political Messianism — The Romantic Phase (London, 1960);The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution (London, 1981).