I've been reading pretty heavily the past weeks despite the busy schedule. I read Ravi Zacharias' The Lamb and the Führer: Jesus Talks with Hitler. It was interesting on it's own, but more so it made me want to read the prison writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. God bless libraries.
It's interesting how much of my reading has been accidentally parallel. Reading about a past Christian seemed amplified by the other book I chance to be reading at the same time. I have recently joined a bible study with my church and we are covering the history of the early church. In preparation I borrowed a book on the history of the church by D. Jeffrey Bingham from my friend. The preface arrested my attention more than once. I excerpt at length:
Every historian is an interpreter of historical facts, presenting those facts as he or she understands them. The historian attempts to find some meaning or significance in what has happened in the past and to describe a relationship between this person and another, between this event and that one. Historians try to make connections and, out of those connections, to suggest lessons.
In many ways church history is the history of Christians interpreting the Bible.
So, what in history may be of particular use to Christians of the twenty-first century? Let me suggest three things.
First, history can help us put our own experience, knowledge and practice into proper perspective. Each generation is tempted to view itself as the best, brightest and most insightful generation. Each generation of Christians is tempted to see its way of worship, its way of ministry, its way of doing spirituality as the most biblical or practical. History reminds us that our generation is not the only one that has ever lived the Christian life. We are Christians within a company of Christians, both present and past, both living on earth and with the Lord. History helps keep us from becoming infatuated with ourselves. History nurtures the goldy virtue of humility.
Second, history reminds us that actions and ideas have consequences not only in our own generation but also for generations to come. What we believe, teach and practice affects future generations of believers. therefore history helps us to not act or teach impulsively. We must employ caution. We must enter into self-criticism and self-evaluation. History helps keep us from taking ourselves too seriously, as if we had all the best answers. At the same time history helps us take ourselves very seriously, because we affect others.
Third, history can give us new ideas, new ways of thinking, new examples of practice that may be biblical. Because these treasures of life and faith are old, because they have been locked away in that dusty old chest of history, when we finally open it up and take them out, they seem new. Wise Christians should always be historians in one sense. They sit higher and can see further, more panoramically, if they enrich themselves from the past. John of Salisbury (1115-1180), a medieval scholar, spoke of the jewels, the riches, the prestige of antiquity. He was right. The past has bequeathed to us its gems. Note his wise words:
Our own generation enjoys the legacy bequeathed to it by that which preceded it. We frequently know more, not because we have moved ahead by our own natural ability, but because we are supported by the [mental] strenght of others, and possess riches that we have inherited from our forefathers. Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to [puny] dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft of their gigantic stature.
That was very lengthy, but worth the typing I feel. I hope you found the contents worth the reading.
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