Routes — questions that run through the centuries

Why does history repeat?

1917. 1941. 1991. Within a single human lifetime the world manages to collapse and be rebuilt — and more than once. This is no accident: every downfall, from Babylon to the 20th century, follows one and the same four-step scenario.

This site follows that one scenario through the people who lived it — philosophers and theologians, painters, composers, writers.

1 · IdolA living idea — God, freedom, the nation, science — is turned into an idol, and people begin to serve it.philosophers call this "objectification" · the seven idols of history → 2 · CollapseThe idol cannot hold: war, revolution, ruin. It falls — and buries its own builders. 3 · CaptivityThe survivors live among the ruins, still serving out of habit an idea already dead. 4 · ReturnSomeone turns back toward the living: a prophet, a philosopher, a poet. With them a new turn of the spiral begins.

Traced through history — Babylon to 1991 → The seven idols, and all 53 collapses → Read a chapter from the books →

Now pick a thread of the drama — or scroll on and watch the whole arc turn.

1Choose a drama

2Choose a station

So history is not a straight line of progress, nor a closed circle, but a spiral — the same four steps, each time on a new turn. The Bible tells this drama from Eden to the New Kingdom — history repeats it in dates and names.

The blue thread is what is revealed to the human being; the gold is what the human being answers. The beads are living people: in every age its own prophet, its own Abraham, its own Job.

by time — who lived when; by law — who stands on which of the four steps

Lineage: Philosophers Theologians Painters Musicians Writers

⟵ DRAG ⟶

VIII BC VII BC VI BC V BC IV BC III BC II BC I BC I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI

the ribbon of history — 50 key catastrophes (full compendium — 53), each beneath its own century; hover a marker to read the four steps of the law on that event, click for the full entry; colour = the resonating drama · How one drama runs through all of history ⟶

The History of Philosophy The History of Literature The History of Painting The History of Music