“But for man's primal sin and fall from the condition of grace there would have been no need for God's saving work. Both sacred history in particular and history itself as experienced by men arise from this primal tragedy. This is the source of the 'river of human history,' the _series calamitatis_, the _res humana_ which flows like a river...History in the full sense, as the troubled past of the human race, is the consequence of a world plunged into the ambivalence of time; time as the vehicle of sin and tragedy as well as the medium of redemption. History in general, the troubled careers of men, societies and their institutions, as well as sacred history, the unfolding of God's plan for healing man's fallen condition, both arise from this primordial strain in the human situation. Temporality itself is involved in being crated; but temporality falls short of historicity. Historicity is the mark of a world in which there is _nihil solidum, nihil stabile_. Man therefore creates a historical situation for himself in the very same act in which he provides God with an opportunity to exercise within human history his saving work.”