Cycles

Most students off to college just before, during and after World War II, as I was, were aided by the Barnes and Noble College Outline Series.  I owned several of the slim volumes that outlined, in narrative form, this or that topic of study.  The outlines were helpful to remind students, in broad strokes, what they ought to know if tested broadly in the field addressed.  Before me is one copyrighted in 1940, and reprinted in 1967.  The author of this copy was Albert Hyman who, for decades, was a highly respected professor at the University of Michigan.  When he had completed his summaries about the ancients of the Mesopotamia area, including references to Egypt’s history of advanced culture, achievements, women’s rights, opportunities and class structures, he generalized in noting that nations have risen and declined, to rise again and decline, through the millennia.  To this Hyman added a footnote: All this appears to negate the application of the evolutionary theory of mankind for the historian, consequently, the safest course is to observe the laws of growth and decay.  This pattern was the general approach of Arnold Toynbee in his review of world history, just after the midpoint of the twentieth century.  Toynbee was acclaimed to be the most eminent English historian of his time.  There are different opinions about where we appear in the concepts of generations and developments.  One rightly hopes for scholars and researchers who will press forward to discover the secrets that may be known about mankind’s history, with rising and declining related to human existence.  With all the effort given to the matter, mankind seems unable to understand and solve the cycles of advancement and decline, with recovery and decline – to ultimate death.  Current to this writing is the intense discussion on why the deep recession of 2008 occurred when we have so much information about the great depression of 1929, and the variant recessions before and since.  In 2014 we continue to address the issues of the economy decline of 2008 – with its continuing residue.  We have gotten little progress beyond conservatives blaming the liberals and vice versa – for the stalemating mode.

This see-saw appears to be endemic to human experience.  It appears to happen in every context of life. Nearly all marriages will experience cycles and transitions, even when families address them with preservative procedures or discovery for intimate relationship success.  Friends enter our lives and persons are improved in the relationships.  Some drop out, perhaps through simple neglect of feeding what is necessary to the life of anything, and we never hear from them again.  Industries flourish, offer great products, jobs, and social improvement.  The cycles begin for ups and downs.  Some of the most famous declines and recoveries were experienced by Henry Ford, especially in 1927, 1932 and these aggravated by his inability to transition to his son, Edsel.  The cycles occur whether in progression or regression as we make our way along life’s highway.  In secular terms there will be need for renaissance, large or small, so to take from the past that which serves, and add what is learned to go on to greater dimensions.  All this requires creativity, leadership, administration, followership, vision, energy, resources and values.  That takes some doing in the light of the enemies lined up to resist application – sloth, selfishness, evasion, carnality, indecision, ignorance, distortion, competitiveness, application, greed, ego, and their derivatives.

Scripture addresses the concept in the extensive view of sin and righteousness.  The right thing to do is related to righteousness (acceptable to God and those who follow his meaning), the wrong thing to do is related to sin (unacceptable to God and those who follow his meaning).  We reiterate here that many persons follow the ideals of God for human life without acknowledging God, and that is possible at least for a period.  Something along the way will undermine that ethical and rewarding pattern, and the emerging context will change things – often as early as when the next generation takes over.  The pattern is found, and that commonly, in the church.  The Apostles were firm that they wanted to advance the church as they interpreted Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit.  The Church Fathers came on with similar purpose, but cracks in the institution were showing.  Today we have a wide range of denominational identities, some in deep conflict with others identified as Christian.  The call of God for unity has been generally evaded.