study history?” Or “why is history important? The presentation will not be a detailed argument, but rather is series of quotations from leading historians and public intellectuals, all of whom find history an integral part of what it means to be human. Why Study History?
Justo Gonzalez, Latin American
theologian: “We study the past to understand the present.” Why Study History?
Daniel Boorstin, former Librarian of
Congress: “Trying to shape the future without understanding the past is like planting cut flowers.” Why Study History? Carter Lindberg, American Church Historian: “History provides a horizon for viewing not only the past but also the present and the future.” Why Study History? Melanchthon, 16th century Protestant theologian: ”Human life without knowledge of history is nothing other than a perpetual childhood, nay, a permanent obscurity and darkness.” Why Study History? Martin Marty, American church historian, on what is missing in today’s mass media culture: “Many of these people [people in the academy, public affairs, politics, and culture-in-general], and almost all who depend on the mass media for communication about God-in-Public or God- and-Public, are deprived of the historical context one needs to make informed judgments about urgent issues and directions.” Why Study History? Martin Marty: When asked why I am an historian, I like to quote a British historian: “I find the world very odd, and I want to know how it got that way!” Why Study History? Kyle Jantzen, Assoc Prof of History, Ambrose University College, Calgary: “What is it that we want from the past but explanations of who we are and how our world came to be as it is? This holds true for us as individuals and families, for churches and businesses, and for whole societies. In times of personal crisis or political upheaval, answering such elemental questions– Who are we? and How did we get here?– becomes even more urgent.” Why Study History? James Baldwin, 20th century American writer: History, as nearly no one seems to know, is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, are unconsciously controlled by it in many ways, and history is literally present in all that we do. Why Study History? Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury: History is a set of stories we tell in order to understand better who we are and the world we’re now in. We don’t have a single ‘grid’ for history; we construct it when we want to resolve certain problems about who we are now. We use narratives to define a subject. Why Study History? John Gaddis, leading US military historian (Yale): The goal of historical scholarship “is not so much to predict the future as to prepare for it.” History expands our range “of experience, both directly and vicariously, so that we can increase our skills, our stamina—and if all goes well, our wisdom. The principle is much the same whether one is working out in a gym, flying a 747 simulator,” etc. Why Study History? John Gaddis, leading US military historian (Yale): The goal of historical scholarship “is not so much to predict the future as to prepare for it.” History expands our range “of experience, both directly and vicariously, so that we can increase our skills, our stamina—and if all goes well, our wisdom. The principle is much the same whether one is working out in a gym, flying a 747 simulator,” etc. Why Study History? Father Dosoftei, a breathless monk at Putna on the Ukraine border, a monastery housing the tomb of the medieval ruler Stephen the Great, knows what lasts. “The Communists destroyed the landscape, but deep down they destroyed nothing. It is only a matter of recovering the tradition. Tradition and modernity cannot exist one without the other. You can only build from the past.” --Robert D. Kaplan, In Europe’s Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey Through Romania and Beyond (2016) Why Study History? Benjamin Carter Hett, historian (CUNY): “In each era, we see the past differently, according to how we see ourselves and our own experiences. One era will notice things about the past that another will not. This is one reason why history is, and has to be, constantly rewritten.” Why Study History?
History doesn’t repeat itself but it often
rhymes. (Attributed to Mark Twain, but uncertain of origin) Why Study History? Matt Becker, Valparaiso University: “I study the past not merely to understand it and how it has shaped the future but also to gain wisdom for actually trying to live faithfully as a Christian in the present. While I do not believe that history repeats itself, I do think it offers up echoes or rhymes (to use the old cliché), and when that happens, attention to past parallels or historical echoes and rhymes might prove instructive.’ Why Study History? Matt Becker, Valparaiso University: “I study the past not merely to understand it and how it has shaped the future but also to gain wisdom for actually trying to live faithfully as a Christian in the present. While I do not believe that history repeats itself, I do think it offers up echoes or rhymes (to use the old cliché), and when that happens, attention to past parallels or historical echoes and rhymes might prove instructive.’ Why Study History?