Is History essentially theological

The conception of history was for many years preoccupied with the question of whether it is essentially ‘theological’ or ‘materialist’ in character (or how it could possibly be both at once), occasioned by the conjunction of Walter Benjamin's self-identification with historical materialism and his continued use of explicitly messianic motifs.

Such thinking  culminates in a quasi-messianic conception of revolution as an ‘interruption’ of history or an ‘arrest of happening’: Classless society is not the final goal of historical progress but its frequently miscarried, ultimately to achiev interruption.