Jonathan Cousins
HIS-306
8/8/2021
Rodney Grilliot
Being a Christian Historian means that one ought to address history professionally and as a Christian without ignoring either. They have to explore Biblical truth and analyze historical evidence without prejudice. Christian historians often refer to the religious readings and acknowledge that the underlying truths and facts have some relationship with the Creator. These perspectives may influence how these historians carry out research, especially in the contemporary society. This work explores certain ways in which Christian perspectives may impact Christian historical analysis and the possible challenges of professional Christian historians in the modern age.
1. “How the perspectives of Christian historians might influence their interpretation of the past.”
Unlike contemporary historians, Christian historians do not evaluate the past from rational speculation or scientific research. They simply reference historical happenings to what is provided in the Bible. Many Christian historians have analyzed the past, but all of them refer to Biblical contexts. The Bible does not provide a clear chronological outline of the past, but it tells stories and narratives about what transpired (Land, 1998). Christian historians work with these narratives to understand the underlying history. The historical parts of the Bible provide an insight into history that shield Christian historians from deviating from Biblical contexts. As they develop from the concrete explanations of historical occurrences to the historical philosophies, they are always careful not to lose sight of the idea that history is the people’s story and it depicts their relationship with the Creator from a Biblical perspective. The idea that Christian historians use things like the Bible that were left behind to trace the chronology of things raises issues in people’s understanding of the past (Kennedy, 2019). The incompleteness of Biblical records leaves many gaps in history. Moreover, the reliance on Biblical contexts may cause Christian historians to develop biased and prejudiced attitudes towards certain things. They may choose to only study the things that fall under the Biblical scope and ignore the rest. The biasness towards non-Christian contexts may hinder these historians from critical research on important and relevant issues. Christian historians may analyze the past from a moral perspective and forget about cultural relativism ideologies that the occurrences of one society should not be used to judge the happenings of another. Regardless of any issue in the world, whether it is terrorism or slavery, Christian historians will always evaluate and explain it from a moral ground. Some Christian historians like Herbert Butterfield highlight that the artistic nature of historians does not allow them to be constrained to the moral aspects of this world (Land, 1998). Other historians differ with this view and emphasize on the importance of using the moral perspective to explain history. The moral ideology hinders these historians from studying historical events from other lenses. Since the activities of Christian historians are built upon the ideologies of a sacred history, it becomes difficult for them to withdraw their evaluation of human past from the sacred history perspective (Kennedy, 2019). Therefore, these perspectives hinder people’s understanding of the past of it points towards one direction.
2. “What challenges might Christian historians face as professional historians given the predominance of postmodern thinking in the field?”
Postmodern ideologies in the study of historical events encompass openness and are not constrained by moral absolutes. Postmodernism requires that Christian historians support their claims by asserting the truth in the documents and references they use. Historical works are only relied upon if the references are authentic and reliable (Denis, 2019). Since the onset of historical studies, it has been the historians aim to evaluate how things transpired. To establish the truth about historical times, Christian historians must provide historical documents for authentication and so that their reliability can be tested. With this regard, the historian has to provide the text’s author, the objectives, and the context. Prejudices must be evaluated to increase the message’s credibility. This initiative becomes a challenge to Christian historians since many narratives as in the Bible do not have information about writers and the time frames. Some documents cannot be referenced since they might have been destroyed making it difficult to prove the credibility of written material. Additionally, there is a modern ideology that highlights that historical content must be enlightening and reasonable. This ideology provides that historians can only provide reliable information is their historical concepts are ahistorical. This statement means that the historian must not rely on personal beliefs and must be neutral. This provision becomes a challenge for Christian historians who base their arguments on Biblical teachings. Overreliance on the Bible and Biblical contexts may render their work unsatisfactory and biased. Some modernists highlight that Christian historian base their work on fiction instead of fact, limiting the reasonability of their work. Modern and postmodern ideologies pose a challenge to Christian historians especially in an era where science and technology explain different phenomenon and contradict Christian history (Christian History Today, 2001).
References
“Christian History Today.” (2001). Christian History 20 (4): 50. https://search-ebscohost-com.lopes.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=5547321&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
Denis, P. (2019). On teaching Christian history in the postmodern world. HTS Theological Studies, 75(1), 1-7. https://dx.doi.org/10.4102/hts.v75i1.5210
Kennedy, S. (2019). Christian humility and the task of history: Recovering the legacy of Herbert Butterfield. ABC Religion and Ethics. https://www.abc.net.au/religion/christian-humility-and-the-task-of-history/10719982
Land, G. (1998, August). A Biblical-Christian approach to the study of history.”. In 22nd Integration of Faith and Learning Seminar: Bogenhoffen Seminary, Austria.
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