An extensive scholarly literature, written in the past century holds
that in ancient Greek and Roman thought history is understood as
circular and repetitive - a consequence of their anti-temporal
metaphysics - in contrast with Judaeo-Christian thought, which sees
history as linear and unique - a consequence of their messianic and
hence radically temporal theology. Gerald Press presents a more general
view - that the Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian cultures were
fundamentally alien and opposed cultural forces and that, therefore,
Christianity's victory over paganism included the replacement or
supersession of one intellectual world by another - and then shows that,
contrary to this view, there was substantial continuity between pagan
and Christian ideas of history in antiquity, rather than a striking
opposition between cyclic and linear patterns. He finds that the
foundation of the Christian view of history as goal-directed lies in the
rhetorical rather than the theological motives of early Christian
writers.