The pagan world crippled us with meaningless cycles. Now that the Jews rescued us from the fatalistic pagan circle and gave us a history that is going somewhere, the somewhere in the distance is what cripples now. It is meaning, of a sort, but meaning that is not doctrinally clear is just a vague foreboding of a consequential exam. Christianity articulated the Last Judgement, then the enlightenment jettisoned all that — they thought. I believe it is still with us, as the always lingering “angst”. There’s the uncertainty about my cosmic position.
You don’t have to actually believe in Last Judgement to feel the exam coming, because any future visitation from outside the system implies the parts of the system will be newly labeled in relation to the new presence. If that seems amorphous, it is. Just barely subconscious now, religious and secular alike carry a constant quiz: “am I doing what I should be doing?” It’s just the moraine of the doctrine of the Last Judgement.
TimothyOne 