Why Study History

We have begun a study looking at Evangelical Friends History (based on a study that was put together by Dr. Leshana). I was speaking with one particular person who had missed the first class and wanted to catch up. I explained that the first class we simply covered, “What is history, and why study it?” He asked, fairly, “Did you give any other answer besides, ‘those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it?’”

1. We can learn from the past – Okay this one is the “gimme.” We learn about ourselves, our culture , and our shared background. We can learn tons about how people behave, what experiments have been tried, and even how to develop good relationships.
2. We can learn what to do (or not to do) – This is where we can learn from the mistakes of the past so as to avoid them. However, maybe there have also been great things worth repeating. Maybe part of what we can do is intentionally repeat parts of our past.
3. We learn who we are – If I ask who you to tell us me about yourself, seldom does one respond, “I am 6’ tall, I am a bit hungry right now, and I have blue eyes.” Instead, we usually tell about our past, “I grew up in Kansas, went to school in New York and California, I have been married for thirteen years.” We believe that you learn something about each other when we describe our stories (i.e. History). In the same way we learn about who we are if we study our history.
4. We learn about God – This is where we differ from non-Christian  people. We believe that all of history is the outworking of God and his plan for the redemption of humanity through the work of Jesus Christ. In that case all of history is His-Story. We get to see how God works and are reminded of who He is.