As he sees it, the Christian conception of love interrupts what he calls the smooth flow of history. (religion-online.org)
A significant element in the background to the Gospel accounts of Jesus is the tradition of apocalyptic literature in which God has come to be viewed as temporarily absent from the current flow of history. (religion-online.org)
Perhaps, as we have noted, it was necessary and even useful in the actual flow of history for the Church, and especially the papacy, to step into the vacuum left by the collapse of the Roman Empire in Europe and the Middle East. (firstthings.com)