St Augustine on Fallen and Redeemed Time

Abstract

St Augustine’s analysis of time, and his radical separation of the time before and after the Fall, point to the extrapolation of a qualitative difference between Adam before the Fall and every subsequent individual. Thus, according to Kierkegaard, even a theological approach such as St Augustine’s¹ presupposes a ‘dialectical-fantastic’ beginning:

The history of the human race acquired a fantastic beginning. Adam was fantastically placed outside this history. Pious feeling and fantasy got what they demanded, a godly prelude, but thought got nothing. (CA, p. 25)