Why Study History?

Below we will explore the question, “Why

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?

Why is history important?