Time & Perspective Quote by Timothy Radcliffe

Radcliffe’s line compresses an entire medieval worldview into a single, quietly radical claim: time itself was redesigned. Not just salvation offered, not just morals upgraded, but chronology rewired. By saying the medieval Church believed the resurrection “marked a new time,” he points to Christianity’s most ambitious cultural project: turning a theological event into the organizing principle of history, politics, and daily life.

The specific intent is partly corrective. Modern readers tend to treat medieval religion as superstition layered onto an otherwise “normal” life. Radcliffe flips that assumption. For medieval Christians, the resurrection wasn’t an inspiring metaphor; it was the hinge on which reality swung. The calendar, the liturgical year, feast days, the very idea of “Anno Domini” all perform that belief. Time becomes narratable: creation, fall, redemption, consummation. History is no longer cyclical drift or imperial pageant; it has a direction.

The subtext is also institutional. If Christ inaugurates a new era “for all of humanity,” the Church can plausibly claim jurisdiction beyond tribe, kingdom, and class. That universalizing move helps explain medieval Europe’s push toward a shared moral language, a pan-continental identity, and the Church’s confidence in speaking over rulers. It’s an idea with pastoral comfort and political teeth.

Context matters: medieval society lived close to death, instability, and the thin line between famine and feast. A “new time” promised that catastrophe wasn’t the final word. The resurrection becomes less an afterlife coupon than a public assertion that the world’s story has already turned a corner, whether or not the headlines agree.