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Chapter 2 The Concept of the Future: Nostalgia, Prophecy andIdentity
2.1. The Concept of the Future: Translation and Semantic Issues
The concept of the future has a complex intension and a broad extension. As one ofthe greatest Christian scholars in the late Roman Empire, St. Augustine'sinterpretation of the three variations of "time" in Christianity exerts its influencethroughout the Middle Ages? According to his interpretation, the fiiture is a conceptin contrast with the past and the present and is associated with “expectation. Theperception of time is based on "tfie time present." St. Augustine is the first Christianscholar to expound the issue of time after Constantine's conversion and hisConfessions is often quoted for his elaboration of the concepts of time. His division oftime into "the past，"the present" and "the future" reflects the early medievalChristian concepts of time. In the context of early Middle Ages, the concept of thefuture could be considered as a distinctive feature of early medieval Christianity. Thiswould present it as a foreign concept for the Anglo-Saxons when they were converted.The reception of this concept in Anglo-Saxon England deserves our consideration. In order to study the concept of the future in the Anglo-Saxon context, it isworthwhile for us to examine how this concept is perceived in early medievalChristianity and the early Germanic culture, the two traditions preceding theconversion of the Anglo-Saxons. Our knowledge of the early medieval Christianconcepts of time comes from two primary sources: St. Augustine's Confessions andBede's Temporum. St. Augustine's discussion of time in Confessions is widely quotedby medievalists to illustrate the early medieval Christian concepts of time. I beginwith a discussion of the quotation from Confessions under the title of this chapter.First，Augustine distinguished three variations of "time" in early medieval Christianity:“a time present of things past“a time present of things present", and "a time presentof things future Second, Augustine associated the past with memory, the presentwith direct experience, and the future with expectation. Third，Augustine perceivedthe past，the present and the future with himself as the centre in which the presentserves as the reference point for the past and the future. In this sense，Augustine'sperception of time fits Evans's "Moving Time model”.5 By relating this passage toBook XI of Confessions from which it is quoted, we can see that Augustine'sdiscussion of the past, the present and the future helps him to answer the question:"What was God doing before he made heaven and earth?"According to Augustine'sinterpretation, there was no time before the Creation since God created both the worldand time/ This interpretation served his purpose to answer his own question and toassure the authority of God by questioning the validity of this question. Since timewas also created by God，the question "What was God doing before he made heavenand earth?" is a false one. Augustine's interpretation of the three variations of "time" indicates that the concept of the future is one of the central concerns in early medievalChristianity.This biblical interpretation of time could find its influence in Anglo-SaxonEngland through Bede's two treatises on time，namely De Temporibus andTemporum,^ In the preface to Te
