The Day That History Died by slaveofone
I find it interesting that the primary focus and thought in a great deal of Protestantism today is theology and that, for the most part, if the historical process is any concern at all, it only appears and disappears when called on by the processes and initiatives already worked out in the philosophical and theological realms of the mind. For instance, how often have you heard a Protestant ask what is historical study?
or what part does history play in my theology?
Chances are, you haven’t. Chances are, the only thing you’ll get when you bring up history and faith is a nice discussion of the history of other Christians’ theologies and philosophies. And woe be the one who thinks to veer away from this historical
faith. It’s as if history
has been removed from the sphere of the world and become only a sphere of the mind—and even, perhaps, only the sphere of the regenerate
mind. Why is that? I stumbled onto an eloquent description that seems to sum up the situation:
…the necessary truths of an aesthetically shaped reason were a more reliable path to true religion than the contingent truths of history.
Setting the Scene: A Brief Outline of Histories of Israel, Rogerson
Could it be Protestantism in general has so moved away from and lost the historical foundation of its faith that the only thing left to make sense of it is a philosophical/theological construction? Did people start thinking that history probably denied or refuted what they believed and that, therefore, they had to retreat into a faith that had nothing to do with it? What is this Christianity that takes the trinity, the hypostatic union, justification, atonement, original sin, predestination, free will, etc, and makes many or most of these mental concepts to be the highest and most essential thing of faith?
I believe history is the foundation of faith and that no amount of sophisticated theological theory will provide an answer about or a way to move forward in one’s faith as well as a good understanding of history. History is the realm in which YHWH works. And it is by history that he is known.
(I speak solely in terms of Protestantism since I belong to this grouping and not another.)