There is an old saying found often on plaques in Bible bookstores: "Be patient. God is not finished with me, yet." In many ways that is my perspective at times as a Christian historian. I still have far to go in this journey.
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Striving for Perfection as a Christian Historian
My journey to being a Christian historian began many moons ago, probably when I decided to be a teacher at age 3, and a teacher of history at age 14 (okay, I was weird kid.). Being a Christian as an historian I have found much easier than trying to actually interpret history from a Christian perspective. In fact, my attempts to try and do so have only developed in recent years. Jason Jewell, Ph.D. recently delivered a lecture on the Christian historian at Faulkner University's Lectureship. The talk was inspiring as it challenged those of us who are historians and Christians to strive for a Christian interpretation of history. Jewell's argument was, in part, that we need to re-examine history and evaluate civilizations as to how well they lived up to God's will. Unfortunately, the more effort I put into considering this question, the more complicated it becomes. Of course, this does not at all make the attempt unprofitable, but the reality is that interpreting history from a Christian perspective is more difficult than it might appear at first glance.
Tim Stafford's article on "Whatever happened to Christian History?" illustrates this. He discusses his frustration in searching for historians who look for the hand of God in history -- the Providential school, it might be called. Jewell's call for us to embark on the same type of re-exploration of history in light of Christian Truth and Stafford's search for the work of God's plan present daunting tasks -- and not because of the work involved. For my own part, the difficulty is my trepidation about becoming Job's friends. Job's friends misinterpret God's actions and motives and they are chastised accordingly. At the same time, the Lord has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power, of love and self-discipline. -- We should not shrink from a task because it is difficult, but we must still be cautious about attributing actions to the hand of God which may not be His. Mark Knoll of Wheaton college (in Stafford's article) argues that we need to base our interpretation on the best possible theology -- true, but even in doing so, we must be cautious as we walk on holy ground. In Scripture, we are told what God was doing -- through the Babylonian captivity, or even the siege of Lachish. Unfortunately, we are not privy to the knowing that those who are with us are greater than those who are with the enemy. As historians, we must sort through the evidence we have -- and the Lord did not give us that evidence. There are many questions which will have to remain unanswered. So -- what does all of this say about my perspective -- other than this is not going to be an easy journey? Well.... the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step -- and a preparation for the journey. Realization of the difficulty of the journey is the first piece of preparation. Below are some of my first steps.
8-25-06
The more I think on this topic the more cautious I become about the task. In fact, perhaps the task of the Christian historian, while still daunting, is not to try and locate the hand of God in history -- and thereby possibly court the fate of Job's friends. Instead, locating the significance of things to Christianity and to Christians and of Christians to the world as whole may be a better course, and one that has indeed fallen out fashion. For an historian to be honest and not simply following the vagaries of academic fashion is a daunting enough task.
