History and the Christian Historian / Edition 1

by Ronald Wells

Overview

This volume arises out of special concerns of historians who are also Christians. What case can be made for connecting historical work and religious convictions? What is the relation of faith to history? What difference could Christian perspectives make in historical study? Thirteen respected scholars — including some who have changed the face of history writing in the twentieth century — here take up a diversity of subjects in giving a provisional answer to these important questions. In exploring foundational issues of perspective and theory, engaging discrete themes such as feminism, puritanism, and missiology, and discussing the application of religious insights in teaching history, this excellent collection of essays forthrightly addresses the “epistemological crisis” brought on by the postmodern critique of truth and demonstrates the positive implications of a Christian perspective for the study of history and historiography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802845368
Publisher:	Eerdmans, William B. Publishing Company
Publication date:	06/11/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Ronald A. Wells is professor emeritus of history at Calvin College, was an editor of both Fides et Historia and The Reformed Journal, and now directs the Symposium on Faith and the Liberal Arts at Maryville College in Tennessee. Among hi

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. PERSPECTIVE AND THEORY

What Difference Might Christian Perspectives Make?
George M. Marsden

Between "Romance" and "True History": Historical Narrative and Truth Telling in a Postmodern Age
Shirley A. Mullen

Critical Historical Judgment and Biblical Faith
C. Stephen Evans

History in Search of Meaning: The Conference on Faith and History
D. G. Hart

Men, Women, and God: Some Historiographical Issues
Margaret Lamberts Bendroth

The Potential of Missiology for the Crises of History
Mark A. Noll

Whose Story, Which Story? Memory and Identity among Baptists in the South
Bill J. Leonard

Selves and Others in Early New England: Refashioning American Puritan Studies
Richard Pointer

The Little White Church: Historiographical Revisions about Religion in Rural America
Robert P. Swierenga

Decoding Conflicted History: Religion and the Historiography on Northern Ireland
Ronald A. Wells

III. APPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING HISTORY

Teaching History, the Gospel, and the Postmodern Self
Jerry L. Summers

Doing Justice in History: Using Narrative Frames Responsibly
G. Marcille Frederick

Christianity, History, and Multiculturalism
Edwin J. Van Kley

Editorial Reviews

Andrews University Seminary Studies
"This volume is essential to anyone concerned with issues of historical theory as they relate to the possibility of Christian history. The presence of women contributors and the interaction with postmodern questions give this volume a unique cast and make it of special contemporary relevance."

H-Net
"History and the Christian Historian is a helpful work, a window on one segment of the community of modern historians. The authors consistently write clearly (not something to be taken for granted) and provide discussions useful to researchers beyond the bounds of their own religious sphere. The book should provoke helpful debate, among both Evangelical historians and all historians in general."

From the Publisher

This volume is essential to anyone concerned with issues of historical theory as they relate to the possibility of Christian history. The presence of women contributors and the interaction with postmodern questions give this volume a unique cast and make it of special contemporary relevance.

Andrews University Seminary Studies

...[a]n ideal opportunity for an expressino of gratitude to the history department of Calvin College....[testifies] further to Calvin College's unparalleled leaership in the field of Christian historiography....One does not need to be a Calvinistor a historian...to appreciate this thinking and its influence... —Books & Culture: A Christian Review

Douglas A. Sweeney