Covenanter Witness Vol. 86 - Rparchives.org

A Brief Fashion History of HistoryFrom The Study WindowDavid M. Carson, Ph.D.Head of the Department of Political ScienceGeneva CollegeAs we were sitting in the lobby of Old Main at thecollege between classes recently, one of my colleaguesremarked to me, apropos his preparation to teach a classin U.S. history, that the most interesting historians to readwere those with a sociological interpretation of history.My immediate reaction was to smile at the waystyles in the writing and understanding of history change,just as styles of dress and architecture change.At one point, some centuries ago, it was common tosee the direct intervention of God in the events of history.Jonathan Edwards illustrated this approach when hewrote, in his History of the Work of Redemption,In all probability, providence has so ordered it, that themariner's compass, (which is an invention of later times,whereby men are enabled to sail over the widest ocean,when before they durst not venture far from land,) shouldprove a preparation for what God intends to bring to passin the glorious times of the church, viz. the sending forththe gospel wherever any of the children of men dwell, howfar soever off, and however separated by wide oceans fromthose parts of the world which are already Christianized.Later there came a period when the interest ofhistorians was essentially political and diplomatic.Scholars grew especially excited over investigating thedeveloping power of the British parlament through theTudor period, or the increasing limitations on the powerof the Stuart kings in the seventeenth century, or the stepsby which the prime minister of England gained power.The complications of dynastic marriages intriguedstudents. History was divided into chapters by the reignsof kings and the terms of presidents.The development of economics as a science in thenineteenth century, and especially Marx's blunt assertionthat economic forces were alone responsible for history,led to fresh investigation and to new conclusions. Manyscholars who were not at all Marxists came to agree thateconomic causes were central. Charles Beard wrote AnEconomic Interpretation of the Constitution to call attentionto the role of commercial and landholding interestsin shaping our government. The Civil War was seennot so much as a quarrel over slavery as a conflict betweenthe industrial economy of the North and the agrarianeconomy of the South. The tensions of the 1930'sculminating in the Second World War were pictured asbetween the "have" and the "have-not" nations. Mycontemporaries in middle life will find this familiar, for itwas the approach to our study of history in high schooland college.And now my younger colleague says that the mostinteresting historians are those with sociological interpretations.He mentioned Bernard Bailyn, who forinstance in an essay "Politics and Social Structure inVirginia" described the conflicts among the colonists notin political terms or in economic terms but as the result ofconflicts between social classes — the old Englisharistocracy, the rough and ready "new men," the wellestablishedgentry, often younger sons of well-to-doEnglishmen. The sociologist's analysis of formalorganizations can help us understand the institutions ofthe past. His study of current social change illuminateschanges in past societies.Two things strike me about these changing styles inthe understanding of history. One is this: men see all ofhistory in terms of the thought common to their own time,When the general climate of opinion included a Christianview of man and the world, men saw the direct hand ofGod in historical events. When men came to think ineconomic terms they saw economic forces at work. Nowthat sociology and psychology are important, we seehistory from their perspective.The second point is that these styles are notmutually exclusive. Each new approach need not invalidatethe old, but rather enriches it. As Christians, weknow that God rules the world. Just as God normallyworks through orderly processes in the physical universe,processes which can be examined and at least partiallyunderstood, so He normally works through such processesin history, which can be examined and at least partiallyunderstood. The more approaches we take to history, themore we understand such processes. More than any of ourpredecessors, therefore, we can appreciate the rich complexityof the past and the wide variety of human motivationsthat, in God's permissive will, have producedit.CITADELS OF FREEDOM"If higher education should become exclusively afunction of the state," said President W. P. Tolley,Allegheny College, "it would be the most seriouscatastrophe that could happen in America. In a day whenthe state is becoming more and more important and theindividual less and less, independent colleges are ourstrongest citadels of freedom. If they should be crippled orstarved by needless competition on the part of the state,the people of America may be taught only the dogmas ofthe party in power."COVENANTER WITNESS