Symbolic Time

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SYMBOLIC TIME

SYMBOLIC TIME is understood to be the temporal form that organizes the symbols of a religious system into an order of periodicity. The analysis of symbolic time extends the understanding of religion as a symbolic system, so that the major functions of time within the system may be taken into account: (1) the time intrinsic to the formation of religious symbols and to the ritual performance (i.e., the time that is internal to the sacred event), (2) the connection that symbolic time has with the history and dynamic of a religious social bond, and (3) the time that is specific to the intentional life of the individual.

Intentional Character of Symbolic Time

Symbolic periodicity encompasses, in its temporal structure, both change and duration, implying a sheer sequence of symbolic events and also a type of internal correlation of events and symbols that reflects the functional unity of the interval of time and the continuity of its structure.

The calendrical structure of the symbolic system has a complexity that differs from that of a means of time reckoning or chronology. The temporal order of symbolic events is quite different from the abstract concept of time as a continuous quantity infinitely divisible into successive parts that are homogeneous and impenetrable (Hubert and Mauss, 1909, p. 190). When compared with the chronological succession of cosmological time units, the symbolic performative system of festivals within a given culture or historical religion appears to be discontinuous and to have an uneven distribution over the sequence of the year. An order of precedence among religious festivals emphasizes a single festival, or set of festivals, around which the entire calendrical performance of the symbolic system is organized and that is replicated as the periodical structure of the religious year. Calendrical periodicity has an order that is temporally specific and reflects the dynamics of the symbolic function. It cannot be adequately analyzed by means of a descriptive model of the immediate empirical form of cyclic repetition.

The analysis of symbolic time may be pursued by linking the periodical structure of the religious symbols to the relational character of the symbol itself. It is possible to identify the dominant symbols that constitute the paradigmatic structure of a symbolic system and to identify their symbolic components and processual aspects, which define the dynamic movement of symbolic time.

A dominant symbol is a processual unity of word, semiotic transformation of an object of mediation, and action. It is structured as a relation that mediates a dynamic order of reality. Each symbolic feature is formed in such a way as to be a relational structure that binds two or more polarities to each other. As a unity, the religious symbol is generated within the dynamic of a relation between the subject and God, or an ultimate reality that has the capacity to condition the life of the subject. In their complex temporal features, symbols are the work of reason and the structures of perception, the dynamics of value, and the form of action in an intentional condition that comes into being when a constitutive relation between polar subjects appears as a new possibility or a new necessity.

In this sense, religious symbols are structures that are formed in the course of action and in the elaboration of experience. Symbol formation is present in the mental activity of the individual from the earliest stages; it is the way by which the relation with reality is established. But the temporal analysis of the type of processual structures that are differentiated by the religious symbol shows that the relation may not be defined simply in terms of subjectivity or in terms of intersubjective exchange. The central structure of a religious symbol defines the condition itself of "being in relation," the condition that shall be called intentionality or intentional bond; a symbol articulates the effective relation that conditions the life of the intentional subjects.

Symbols differentiate the direct expression and performance of the bond that relates the subject with the intentional object. The symbolic bond has a polar structure: It is constituted both by the orientation of the subject toward the object and by the way in which the object is determinant and active in the intentional life of the subject. The symbol is also performative because it elaborates the cognitive and dynamic structure of the intentional relation itself.

Symbolic time in its specifically religious form is the result of a temporal elaboration of the intentional exchange with an ultimate reality. This temporal elaboration represents a dynamic, generative process. In fact, symbols are temporally correlated in such a way as to constitute the nascent state of a bond with an intentional reality and to resolve unviable conditions in that relation. This article shall call the temporal development and articulation of symbols within a symbolic system the figura.

As the specific modality of the bond, a religious "public" symbol and the figura have a temporally complex structure. The symbol does not define exclusively or simply a subjective or intersubjective perception of and orientation toward a significant reality. Nor does the symbol, as the synthesis of the intentional process of a bipolar dynamic, present merely the synthetic form of probability of a logical inference. Instead, being the structure that defines the dynamic of an effective relation of the intentional bond, the "public" symbol is a temporal relation of relations in the sense that it defines the transformation by which the subjective perception emerges into a form of reciprocity, which is constitutive of an intentional bond.

This process of transformation to public intentional form corresponds to the epigenesis of a new intentional and social reality and to the cultural creations that have produced, through time, a vital bond. The path from a subjective to a "public" symbol progresses through a symbolic innovation, differentiated by the figura. It traces into specific structures of dominant symbols and into their temporal correlation a sheer sequence from past to future of temporal symbolic modalities, from the original insight to a condition of vital presence to a new structural orientation of action that expresses the time and the creative character of the bond. The religious figura, itself, has an historical formation that has come about through the actions of founders, the creativity of individuals and collective movements that have produced innovation within a tradition of forms of religious relation. The temporal dimension is intrinsic to the public symbol because it corresponds to the dynamic structure of the intentional relation, to its unity and transformation.

Symbols are generated within the intentional relation and constitute necessary structures and functions by which the new reality becomes and remains intentional. Formed within the intentional exchange, symbols are complex facts that differentiate the generative force of relation. They elaborate the internal principle of causality, the order of necessity, and the temporal logic that is stated within an intentional reality.

Because the symbol is both temporal and intentional, it is possible to interpret the symbolic or religious system not primarily as a system of signification, as analogical representation, nor simply as a set of metaphors, but as a processual structure that elaborates the forms of the "condition of being in relation" and the dynamics of the nascent state that is created within the ultimate intentional relation. The connotative and denotative features of signification that the symbol clearly presents may, consequently, be seen to be functions of the primary structure of the symbol as intentional relation.

The temporal function indicates that the symbol is the constant empirical constituent of the intentional relation. The religious symbol is a temporal artifact specific to the dynamic generated in the intentional relation. It is not an independent object but the temporal creativity in which the actual intentional event has its passage to a public, new bond. This applies not only to the individual symbol but also to the symbolic system as it is shaped by the interrelation of sacred text, symbolic forms of intentional exchange, and symbolic action.

Three theoretical elements, therefore, define symbolic time, namely, figura, periodicity, and intentional epigenesis. The "figura" is the set of symbols that are temporally correlated into a periodical system, and it is the original central structure of time within the intentional event. For this reason, the figura is the minimal unit of analyis of the symbolic temporal function. Periodicity defines the correlation of the symbols within a temporal interval. Intentionality, as the relational character of the symbols, is the epigenetic process, the nascent state of an intentional bond.

The temporal function of the figura is the dynamic process of a presence that has an intentional character. In the development from the first insight to an intentional bond, the figura is directed toward the resolution of the tension between those factors that are generative of an intentional bond and those that move in a contrary direction and finally destroy the bond or reduce its vitality. The formation of a figura and its performance is the result of a sequence of historical choices and actions related to the formation and selection of symbolic institutional structures. The figura reflects the experience of long periods of trial and error in the historical formation of a religious tradition, a sacred history, and a people. The intentional character of the figura becomes most evident in the language and action of the sacrifice and in the formulation of the sacred bond.

By formalizing the "relational" aspect of the symbols and of the development of the figura and by correlating it with the symbolic, sequential, and performative movement of the figura, one may specify the intentional character of periodicity presented by symbolic time.

Intentional Epigenesis and Formation of the Figura

The process of formation of the religious bond within a sacred history corresponds to the development of symbolic structures of a divine encounter and union. Defined in its relational character both of divinization and of incarnation, the development is a process of transcendence that has the temporal structure of a total object relation. The total object relation is an intentional action that transforms the bond from subjective to public. It is a nascent state within the intentional event that guides the passage from an inadequate modality of relation (in which the subject attempts to appropriate the value of life represented by the object and to negate the intentional value of the object and the constitutive and vital character of the relation) to a modality of the bond in which the object is restored to its original value as object of relation. With this epigenetic movement, both subject and object come to be recognized in their wholeness as vital to the bond, and the bond becomes a creative condition of intentional life.

In theological or religious language, the epigenetic sequence is often expressed in terms of the transformation from death to life, from darkness to light, from slavery to freedom through a time and history of salvation.

A total object relation allows the recognition of the other as total object. This is achieved by means of a resolution of the dynamics and structural intentional modalities of a partial object relation that are destructive or appropriative of the object and therefore inadequate to the condition of reciprocity of an intentional bond. This occurs through a creative intentional initiative (gift, sacrifice) in which the intentional dynamics of the partial object relation are transformed from appropriative to reciprocal and through models of thought and action that sustain intentional reciprocity in the creation of sociocultural institutions that express the bond. It follows from this that the nascent state and the epigenesis of a total object relation, in its temporal symbolic structure, is a sequence of intentional positions that build a symbolic intentional bond. Each passage from one intentional position to another is guided, in its unity, by particular dominant symbols.

The temporal correlation of the dominant symbols is the order of successive creations of the intentional relation; this develops the nascent state into a vital form of life and corresponds to the sacred history of the bond.

The initial stages of the sequence are not merely incidental to the development of a vital cultural and institutional bond. They are, instead, the necessary elements, stages, and modalities of the temporal process of the bond itself.

Symbolic time is a generative symbolic form. It traces and differentiates a specific way by which human action, in a given intentional bond, both at the level of the individual and of the collectivity, becomes intentionally creative. The nascent state related to the figura is a process of formation of something new, the specific event of the coming into being of an intentional bond, a dynamic covenant that constitutes a new order of possibility and the creation of new cultural and institutional forms. The figura is the generative time of an intentional public bond that has been brought about by a transformation of the structure of intentional relations and by the symbolic and institutional elaboration of intentional existence.

The intentional character of the figura within the development of a sacred history is differentiated as the paradigmatic action, the symbolic agent (identified as founder, hero, or prophet), and the normative order of intentional life. Symbolic time is, therefore, interior to the intentional relation of the bond, and symbols are structures that both differentiate and connect the initial perception of reality to the elaboration of concrete forms of relation and to their articulation through time.

Ritual Performance

The figura, as it is represented by a calendrical order, makes use of three types of temporal parameters: time units, rules of symbolic performance, and sets of festivals or rituals. The "time units" are periodical intervals normally related to astronomic measurements of the solar and lunar year, the solstices and equinoxes, the month, the week, and the day. The set of performative rules defines the logic of interrelation of the symbolic features of word, action, and object in the form of intentional exchange and coordinates the different symbols in such a way as to express the intentional structure of the figura through its temporal periodical performance. Festivals are symbolic public actions that have a mythic and ritual structure.

The features of the three main temporal parameters are correlated so that a condition of time is created that is periodical. The temporal coordination of the dominant symbols is ritualized in a calendrical, repetitive form.

The different festivals and their distribution, which is, as has been seen, uneven and discontinuous through the year, correspond to the calendrical coordination of specific events of the epigenetic sequence. These events are correlated into a performative paradigm that has the pattern of a "fact coming into being" (fait naissant ). This performative pattern, which structures the individual ritual and permeates the periodicity of the figura, has a tripartite structure consisting of a phase of separation and destructuration, of limen, and of restructuration and organization into a new relationship (van Gennep, 1960; Turner, 1969). In the first phase the ritual subjects become detached from their former modalities of intentional relation and from their structural expression; in the last phase a new cultural and structural bond is created in which the individual and the collectivity express a new intentional modality. The celebration of the intentional bond occurs in the liminal phase of the ritual and is centered in the performance of the sacrifice. The central phase is liminal and transitional: The ritual actors are freed from structural or social definition while they acquire a new symbolic definition.

The performative paradigm of the figura elaborates the three main phases and conditions of the epigenetic sequence that are intrinsic to the formation of a bond: the originating occasion and condition of the fact coming into being, which carries with it the resolution of modalities that are contrary to the bond, the definition of the bond through the sacrifice, and the public and historical structures instituted by the bond. The whole corresponds to the nascent state and to the process of adaptation within the intentional bond.

Every festival, and indeed the figura as a whole, creates a confrontation between the new and the old, between viable and unviable modalities of the bond. Through the performative pattern, the figura roots the continuity of the cultural symbolic institution in a constant dynamic process.

The Periodicity of the Figura

The figura is predicated on the correlation of the epigenetic and performative paradigms. In the case of the Christian tradition, the figura is centered on the three initiatory sacramental symbols of baptism, Eucharist, and confirmation. The epigenetic model is defined in terms of transformation from a condition of death to one of life. The transformation is elaborated in a structural and dynamic sequence of active and passive exchanges between God and humanity. The line of action of God toward humans initiates the sequence and is coordinated—in a dialogical structure—with a complementary line of action of humans toward God. Initiated by gift, the sequence passes through a creative intentional crisis that is specified in the sacrifice and leads, at the end of the process of transformation, to a differentiation of a total object relation. The performative model of the festivals of Easter time (which articulates the three dominant sacramental symbols and which is central to the religious year) constitutes an order of relation between intentional events that have been differentiated through the "history of salvation" from creation and the original relation with God to the constitution of the covenant.

From the point of view of the epigenetic performative sequence, the order of "events" in a sacred history derives its significance and constitutive character not primarily from the chronological aspect of the sequence but from its relation to the dynamics and transformations of the intentional bond and from the conditions of continuity of that bond. Together the two complementary models, the epigenetic and the performative, constitute the periodical order of a religious figura which, in its temporal unity, sustains the dynamic continuity of the intentional relation. The three phases of the ritual process translate each of the three epigenetic positions and the sequence as a whole, which develops the institutional forms of the intentional relation into the performative pattern of a fact coming into being.

The sacrifice is at the center of the figura both in the epigenetic sequence and in the performative process. As the point of qualitative change in the creation of the bond, the sacrifice is the active resolution of what is contradictory to the bond and the affirmation of a new condition of total object relation. In the ritual process, the sacrifice specifies the structural differentiation of the intentional bond in its "coming into being." The ritual process may be described as a performative sequence that has an epigenetic function.

The performative articulation of symbols and festivals creates the temporal order of the positions of epigenesis through the ritual sequence while maintaining the explicit connection of each festival and dominant symbol with the central symbolic position elaborated by the sacrifice. This results in a periodical correlation of the different symbols with the transformative structure of the sacrifice. While festivals mark the change related to the symbolic positions, the sacrifice renews the central dynamic of the nascent state of the bond. This periodical process of the figura creates a "dynamic state," which corresponds to the complex intentional relation of the bond.

The calendrical system elaborates the periodical temporal order of the figura, which is ritually performed in the interval of the year through a set of festivals. Recurrent intervals of the year, like the week or the day, offer a rhythmic movement of religious time repeating in ritual form the central paradigm of the figura.

The performance of the figura, which is the original central structure of time, is also the anamnesis and memorial of the foundation of the bond. The historical formation of the calendar shows a progressive differentiation of a set of festivals, which is correlated to the central structure of the figura and which celebrates the apotheosis of the historical founder, the unity of the people of the covenant, and the celebration of those events that have been most significant for the historical continuity and development of the bond. The two orders of time, the periodical symbolic structure of the bond and the celebration of the continuity and the tradition of the bond, are frequently positioned along two discrete temporal axes within the periodical interval of the year. For example, the epigenetic performance may be positioned on the lunar axis; the celebration of the historical formation of the tradition may be positioned on the solar axis. But the religious calendar expresses primarily the order of the temporal epigenetic symbols.

The intentional bond creates and sustains an objective order of relations that is linguistic, institutional, and normative. Although it may appear to be independent of the time of epigenetic performance, this symbolic institutional order has an inherently temporal structure and is ruled by the timelike order of the figura.

The figura is dynamic rather than static, synchronic as well as diachronic; it is related to the event but in such a way that the event may be understood as a nascent state and the creative element of history and continuity. The figura is not an ahistorical archetype, nor is it a rigid whole, obeying some closed formal principle. It is, instead, connected to the history of religious interpretation and ideas; it is internal to the process of formation of intentional action and to that of the social bond. The figura expresses a form of causality that is specific to the intentional character of the historical event.

The individual is directly active in forming and performing the figura but the figura is the way toward the bond for the individual. By defining the dynamic structure of the bond, the figura traces an initiatory path toward the public character of experience. The time of the figura becomes the time and depth of the religious structure of mind of the individual.

The symbolic time system within a culture may present a broad range of historical variation. By the way in which the polar aspects of the figura are emphasized, a tradition may differ in style and in institutional form. For example, Manichaeism and other forms of religious dualism explain the confrontation inherent in the intentional relation as a conflict between two opposite and independent systems of reality and two orders of time. Other religious systems, such as Judaism, connect the religious polarities into one order of relation and correlate the intentional confrontation with the time itself of the intentional bond.

Particular historical styles within one religion, while maintaining the temporal integrity of the figura, may differ in the interpretation and emphasis that they give to the epigenetic or to the performative orders of symbolic time or to one of the dominant symbols. But the religious figura is simultaneously a transformative nascent state and a living tradition. Symbolic time, by sustaining a system of religious reciprocity, an intentional vision, and a processual articulation of reality, is structured in its development and unity as an epiphany of intentional life.

Bibliography

Mircea Eliade's Cosmos and History: The Myth of the Eternal Return (New York, 1954) remains the fundamental study of periodical return to the mythical time of the origin. Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss, in "La représentation du temps dans la religion et la magie" in their Mélanges d'histoire des religions (Paris, 1909), pp. 189–229, first described the qualitative nature of calendrical time. The performative structure of the ritual process is analyzed in Arnold van Gennep's classic work of 1909, The Rites of Passage (Chicago, 1960), and in Victor Turner's The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago, 1969). Francesco Alberoni has made a significant contribution to the understanding of dynamic structures of the nascent state in Movement and Institution (New York, 1984). Symbolic intentionality is presented in relation to the Christian liturgical year in my book Tempo symbolico: Liturgia della vita (Brescia, 1985). Henri-Irénée Marrou offers a thoughtful approach to the theological interpretation of time and history in Théologie de l'histoire (Paris, 1968). For an illuminating analysis of studies of time in ancient cultures and of the concept of periodicity in historiography, see Arnaldo Momigliano's "Time in Ancient Historiography," in his Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography (Middletown, Conn., 1977). Clifford Geertz's The Interpretation of Cultures (New York, 1973) makes an important contribution to the study of religion as a symbolic system. The temporal forms within narrative are discussed by Paul Ricoeur in Time and Narrative (Chicago, 1984).