We believe
that history is essential to understanding the Catholic Faith
and that the Catholic Faith is essential to understanding
true
history.
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Articles > The Big Picture of History The Big Picture of History The study of Western Civilization or Western Culture has become politically incorrect in many circles today. Perhaps that is because there is a conscious attempt being made to rewrite history from a non-Christian, sometimes even anti-Christian point of view. Western Culture was the seedbed of Christian Culture and Christian Culture, or Christendom, is the Kingdom of God established on earth through Christ and His apostles and continued on through the Catholic Church and its successors to the apostles. This is the heritage of all Christians and our cultural heritage needs to be studied and understood in the light of our Faith in order to be passed on to succeeding generations. If we lose our cultural memory, if we allow our history to be taken from us the "glory of Christendom", of truly Catholic culture, will become lost to us. It is a necessity for each of us as Catholic parents and educators to restore this culture for ourselves, for our children and for the continued existence of a civilized society. But to restore authentic Christian Culture we must first understand what it is and from where it originated, we must come to an understanding of history from the perspective of our Catholic Faith. Catholic historian, Christopher Dawson writes in his book, The Crisis of Western Education: "For if we study Western
culture in the light of Catholic theology and philosophy, we are in fact
studying Christian culture or one aspect of it. I believe that the study of
Christian culture is the missing link which it is essential to supply if the
tradition of Western education and Western culture is to survive, for it is only
through this study that we can understand how Western culture came to exist and
what are the essential values for which it stands." So how do we as Catholic home educators begin to undertake such a seemingly daunting task? Most of us are not historians, many of us do not even remember much world history from our schooldays, if indeed we were even taught any history other than American. We must begin by understanding the History of Salvation, for that is the true story of history from which all other stories are derived. Human history is only given true meaning through the understanding that we were created for a purpose by an all-loving God who actively participates in all human life through His Divine Providence. He created us, He sustains us, He hears us when we cry out to Him for help and comfort, He sends us prophets and yes, even miracles yet today, and the ultimate purpose which He gives each of our lives is to return to Him to abide with Him forever! Consider these words from Professor of History, Rollin Lassetter of the University of Dallas, in his excellent article, Light to the Nations: Reclaiming the Catholic Historical Imagination
"...History Studies.... lifts the curtain on a great drama — the great acts of God among His people, the Logos at work creating and redeeming our world. That understanding informed saints and students for centuries before this one, and should be still informing Catholic educators today. Why it does not is a tale in itself, best left for another time. A Catholic history is the reconstruction of human events seen as the working of God in this world, shepherding, guiding, the sheep of the nations, with the laws of reason and the law of revelation, toward the moment of the Incarnation and the Resurrection. In its dramatic suspense students find the revelation of death’s illusion and the hope of eternal life. In its heroic romance lies the spread of that vision to all the world, supplanting lesser visions and incorporating cultures and civilizations capable of receiving it, up to the final moment of judgment, the parousia, and New Heaven and Earth." Professor Lassetter continues by quoting "The Religious Dimension of Education", from the Congregation for Catholic Education: "Teachers should guide the students’ work in such a way that they will be able to discover a religious dimension in the world of human history. As a preliminary, they should be encouraged to develop a taste for historical truth, and therefore to realize the need to look critically at texts and curricula which, at times, are imposed by a government or distorted by the ideology of the author. The next step is to help students see history as something real: the drama of human grandeur and human misery. The protagonist of history is the human person, who projects onto the world, on a larger scale, the good and evil that is withal each individual. History is, then, a monumental struggle between these two fundamental realities, and is subject to moral judgments. But such judgments must always be made with understanding. (III.2.58) "To this end, the teacher should help students to see history as a whole. Looking at the grand picture, they will see the development of civilizations, and learn about progress, such things as economic development, human freedom, and international cooperation, realizing this can help to offset the disgust that comes from learning about the darker side of human history. (II.2.59)" [As quoted in Light to the Nations] The Big Picture of history is the "romance of salvation", the love story of God for His people as He guides us back to Himself. When we understand this we can understand the meaning of true history.
Post-modernism teaches us that knowledge is incoherent, that there is simply no
way to put the world’s story together; John Paul II proposed Christian faith as
a comprehensive, coherent, and compelling account of human nature and human
community, of human origins and human destiny. -
George Weigel
Related Links: Seeing the Big Picture in Scripture by Tim Gray Light to the Nations: Reclaiming the Catholic Historical Imagination by Rollin Lasseter |
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