History For The Church

Over the next couple of weeks, I want to reflect on a question that I've been wrestling with for some time: What does it mean to study and write history for the church? That is, what do those of us who are both practising historians and practising Christians have to offer the church through our skills and training? I'm going to reflect on my own experiences as both historian and pew-sitter, but I'd also love to hear what others think - whether as historians, churchgoers, ministers, theologians or misc! What do you think historians have to offer the church?
I have deliberately chosen the title 'history for the church' for this series, because this is how I want to imagine my role as a Christian and historian: whatever the subject of my research, whatever the primary audience for my findings, in some sense I want to be orientated to serving the community of faith. This is something of a change for me. I write history that is directly concerned with the place of Christianity in past changes. But my approach to that subject is broadly 'secular' - that is, I don't seek to directly identify divine involvement in that process of change. In fact, I have been quite resistant to 'church history', which in my experience has often been history controlled by current theological and denominational agendas, to the detriment of any serious engagement with the complexities of the past. One example in evangelical circles is the tendency to portray the politically conservative anti-slavery activist William Wilberforce as some kind of left-wing progressive, which prematurely shuts down any thoughtful analysis of the distinctive strengths and weaknesses of the evangelical tradition of social involvement. Wilberforce, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King and Bono blur together as roughly equivalent figures!
In the next couple of weeks, therefore, I hope to think about some more constructive models for the church in engaging with historical questions. I want to consider 'history for the church' both at a broad, theoretical level - what is the role of history in the community of faith? - and at a very practical level - what role can historians play as members of the local and scattered church? These are big questions, and I don't promise to arrive at any comprehensive conclusions - but I hope you'll join in the ponderings!

listening to...

The felicitous combination of Christmas presents and Christmas sales has left me with a swag of great new music, which I am enjoying enormously. I can heartily recommend:

Emiliana Torrini, Fisherman's Woman
The Audreys, Between Last Night and Us
Missy Higgins, The Sound of White
Sophie Koh, Silly Thing
Wailin' Jennys, Firecracker

OK, so there's a ridiculous preponderance of women singing sweetly to the sound of strings, with just enough acidic edge to keep it from being totally saccharine. I can also recommend Sufjan Steven's Songs for Christmas (man singing sweetly to the sound of strings, with just enough acidic edge...etc.) if for no other reason than the terrific title of 'Get Behind Me Santa', one of the carols he composed. But basically, to quote The Audreys, 'If this is the state you find me in, blame it on the banjo and violin...'.

New Year, New Resolutions

I'm back at my desk after three relaxing weeks in Queensland, and along with my other fairly predictable new year's resolutions (eat more vegetables, pray more, swim more, file more, stress less, read the pile of books I collected in second-hand bookshops while on holiday) I am determined to get back into blogging. I have a couple of series in mind - one on history for the church (as opposed to 'church history'), one on WIlliam Cavanaugh's challenging book 'Torture and Eucharist' which I have recently started reading. This year I'm employed as a research fellow, working on a major project on 'missions and gender' in Australia - so that should make it into my posts as well. Thanks to those of you who have kept visiting this blog, and asked when I would get back to it - hopefully there will be something more regular for you to read from now on!