Erfüllung, Endlosigkeit und Wiederholung. Drei Aspekte einer "Zeit-Geschichte" der Reformation

Abstract

From the contemporary point of view the Reformation was anything but a profane event. It made the late-medieval predictions and biblical prophecies coming true. Thus the Reformation got a specific temporal unity and coherence: It was the fulfillment of a promise. This unity, however, was counteracted by a another constitutive temporality of the Reformation: The proclamation of the word the reformators were committed to could not be finished. Fulfillment and endlessness characterized the temporal signature of the Reformation and guaranteed its transcendental basis. Finally, however, the Reformation included also a self-referential, worldly element of time. References to the own history enabled the Reformators not only to implement their concerns time and time again but also to ensure the sustainability of the Reformation in a historical sense. Fulfillment, endlessness, and repetition were three aspects of historical time in the Age of Reformation, that were treated in the essay.