It is fun watching Phil Strunk and the Messiah College sophomore history majors who make up the”Reckless Historians” grow as historical thinkers. In his latest post, Strunk talks about reading Sam Wineburg’s Historical Thinking and Other Natural Acts and coming to grips with the idea that history is more than the memorization of facts. Here is a taste:
As a historian, I’m just trying to make sense of the past with the facts I’m given. I get to study the finer details of the past — and while knowing dates and people are necessary tools of history, they should not be the final product of history. History is deeply involved in understanding our thought processes and the thought processes of people in the past, and just trying to understand the “who, what, where, when, why, and how” of a situation.
Phil’s post reminds me of a line in my forthcoming, Why Study History: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past. After discussing the economics teacher (played by Ben Stein) in the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I write: “This teacher, with his knowledge of certain facts about economic life in America, might be a successful candidate on Jeopardy, but he is not teaching history.”
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John, I've been thinking of this particular topic for the past couple of weeks. I'm preparing some notes to use with my children in the fall. I'm looking forward to your book.
Here are a few thought I've thrown together:
The God of History
· God is a God of History (history is important to God)
· As soon as he created (time), history began
· God works in space, time (i.e. history).
· God entered into history, establishing a relationship with man, by
way of covenant (WCF, 7).
· God tells us to remember the history of God's mighty acts (Ps. 145:5)
The Scriptures
The Bible is a historical book
The bible is a book of history
It includes the history of redemption
It (the bible) has a history
People of History (everyone is curious about the past):
We are a People with a History
People are interested in: Themselves (who we are, where we came from)
Others
Events
How things in the past were accomplished.
People, with great stories to tell.
The (Christian) Faith
The foundation of our faith is rooted in history (Jude 3)
It is through history that the message has come to us.
Church history is filled with fascinating people in fascinating
times, and they have fascinating stories to tell.
Other thoughts:
If you want to shape the future, you need to learn from past. Those
in the past who shaped the future, knew their past.
Those who fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.
We face battles in our day that are similar (if not the same) as those
in the past. We can learn from those who have already been through the
battles.