The Zietghiest of Salvation

Just on the surface, when we hear or speak about History we tend to simply be referring to either a set of particular events which have happened in the past or the entire culmination of all that which has already happened.  In most recent times, however, when we speak or hear of history it takes a somewhat Hegelian meaning - that is, history more than merely that which has passed in time but a progressive movement towards something.  Most notably is the phrase “finding oneself on the right side of history” so often used in society today.  The assumption here is that history is a progressive motion, moving towards an end such that where we are right now is the right way, the enlightened time, and somehow more fulfilled than the times of the past.  JPII harkens to this notion of history as a progressive motion, but sees it correctly as a progressive motion of Man towards God.

Hegel introduced the notion of history as moving towards a culminating event.  For him though the culminating event was, to grossly grossly sum up his idea, the fulfillment of culture in Germany which would become the centerpiece of all western civilization.  I am not going to spend too much time here going over the ins and outs of Hegel's claims and philosophy.  Hegel's progression of history is clearly very different from the progression JPII understood to be reality; I merely mention it as a starting point and seemingly original secular articulation of understanding history as more than past events.  

The progression of history JPII references is tied up with the notion of eschatology, or the understanding of the end of a thing.  By understanding the end of any individual thing we may understand something more about the nature of the thing itself.  A watch for example has the end of keeping and communicating the present time to whoever consults it.  It is considered to be a bad watch if it does not keep time, or if it is unable to communicate the time.  In this same way if we understand the end of man we then know something about him, and what defects must be remedied or have already been remedied by measuring it up with the eschatology of his being.  

The similarity between man and a watch however obviously only goes so far, and as the Baltimore Catechism teaches us man was created “to know, love, and serve God, and to be happy with Him in Heaven.”  If we accept this definition of the end of man, his purpose for existence, then we see all of history as the progression of man, both individually and as a communal whole (as Lumen Gentium states God does not merely redeem or call individuals divorced from their place in the whole of society.  God calls all men; He also calls all Man to Himself).  It is the progressive movement towards a deeper encounter and understanding of God by Man, which in itself “signifies the fullness of salvation, the history of which is at issue (John Paul II, Sources of Renewal)”.  It is a discussion for elsewhere on the relation between the consciousness of salvation and the work of salvation; here it is we see that the consciousness of salvation relates to history itself.