And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
Behold, the 7 (st)ages of man: primitive, archaic, classical, medieval, modern, modernist, today
The artist Salvator R. Tarnmoor recently illustrated this concept, with commentary, from which this is all taken.
These correspond, most obviously, with religious history; but also with political history, and erotic history, and literary history, architectures, theology...(and probably other things).
The seven ages of religion:
1. Primitive superstition
2. Astronomy, the beginning of theological speculation
3. Organized cultic practice, hierarchical polytheism/monotheism
4. Catholicism
5. Protestantism
6. Prometheanism
7. Decadent indifference
The seven ages of politics:
1. Clans
2. City-states
3. Military empires (interrupted by Christianity)
4. Feudalism
5. Colonial empires (interrupted by America)
6. Nations
7. Twitter tribes
The seven ages of eros:
1. Primitive promiscuity
2. Archaic polygamy
3. Patriarchal marriage (adultery -> divorce)
4. Catholic marriage (indissoluble)
5. Companionate marriage (incompatibility -> divorce)
6. Urban dating scenes, i.e. casual polyamory
7. Tech-mediated promiscuity
The seven ages of literature:
1. N/A
2. Homer (external epic)
3. Aeschylus (Athenian drama of fate)
4. Dante (Romantic epic-lyric of salvation history)
5. Shakespeare (Elizabethan drama of character)
6. Melville (internal epic, =novel)
7. N/A
The seven archetypal architectures:
1. Clearing
2. Megaliths
3. Temple
4. Cathedral
5. Meeting-house
6. Megalopolis
7. iPhone
Note the steady progression from open-air to walled-in; but note also the chiasmic movement w.r.t. geometry, with the Gothic peaked arch in the middle.
Finally, the 7 stages of theology :
The arrows aren't univocal, the trinitarian one eg includes generation, procession, creation, and ... whatever Satan's turning in on himself is called
Dashed = dependent on a higher reality, Indicates that the idea that there's necessarily a first & final cause hadn't yet taken root. Eg animism just says "everything is interconnected"; when philosophers get their hands on it it becomes pantheism which says "everything is connected to the All"
[only dashed lines] Indicates that the idea that there's necessarily a first & final cause hadn't yet taken root. Eg animism just says "everything is interconnected"; when philosophers get their hands on it it becomes pantheism which says "everything is connected to the All"
Monotheism is Hebraic monotheism, the other circles are the gods of other tribes. The vertical line is the covenant
The god of monolatry is faintly dashed bc he's close to bring seen as First & Final Cause but not quite there Everything after Christianity is solid lines bc it's seen sub specie aeternitatis
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