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Articles > Why Study
History?
Over the years our family became increasingly frustrated by
the mixed bag of history resources and information available
from the popular non-Catholic homeschool suppliers. As we
studied history together we discovered that history
witnesses to the truth and authority of the Catholic Church.
Despite this fact, many people, sometimes purposely to
attack or weaken the Church, but more often out of ignorance
or blindness, have distorted their telling of history in
books and movies (both fiction and non-fiction) and through
the media. History is too often used as a weapon against the
Faith! Our own ignorance of true history allows this to be
perpetuated.
In his essay, The Counter-Attack Through History, Catholic
writer Hilaire Belloc states:
"Ever since the Reformation, the attack on the Faith has
been principally conducted on the field of history...The
time has come for us to take the counter-offensive; for,
with the expansion of historical knowledge, history is now
with us. Truth confirms truth."*
A proper understanding of history can bring many souls into
the fullness of the Faith and strengthen the faith of us
all. We personally know of many individuals and families who
have entered or re-entered the Catholic Church because of
their study of true history. It is no wonder that "as
Catholics, we are preeminently the people for whom history
matters."**
Many people who have been educated in traditional schools
are under the impression that the study of history is
nothing more than a series of dull textbooks and dry
lectures which have no connection to their own life. That is
because history has been divorced from its story and from
the deeper meaning that belongs to a telling of true
history. There is no meaning to the history that is taught
in secular, and yes, even many Catholic schools. History is
presented as just a series of random events that happened
purely by chance. There is no mention of a divine plan or
that there is a Divine Planner in charge of the world and
its history. Secular history is just the story of man's
purposeless existence and accomplishments on earth. In the
world today there is a full-scale war against truth. History
is being re-written for political and social agendas and the
truth is becoming harder and harder to discover. Yet as the
darkness grows so does the light. More and more people are
realizing that something is missing, that they are being
lied to; they are searching for a truth they are not even
certain exists.
The Catholic view of history is very different. We believe
that Truth exists and can be discovered. We believe that
there most certainly is a God, that He created the universe
and each one of us for a very specific purpose and our study
of history should reflect this belief.
How then do we teach history to our children?
History is the story of God and man, of our creation by God
and our search for Him who made us, "the re-gathering of
human life throughout history into the arms of God."** What
a beautiful view of history! Suddenly human history has a
beginning, a purpose and a destination. History is not just
about a series of battles and political power struggles, it
is the story of God's saving actions in human life - the
Story of our Salvation by God.
A Catholic study of history is not just a matter of using a
Catholic textbook instead of a secular or Protestant book or
of adding in the lives of the saints or Church history. The
Catholic faith teaches the existence of absolute truth, of
Truth Incarnate which is Jesus Christ himself. The study of
history can and should be a vehicle to search for this
truth, to come into closer union with Truth Himself.
The central thread of history is the story of the people of
God. The history of the Jews is the history of the roots of
Western Culture and of Christianity. The Old Testament tells
the story of Israel and the covenants made between God and
man. With the coming of Christ the Old Covenant is fulfilled
and the New Israel is formed - the Church - which
incorporates all the peoples of the world into the family of
God. The rest of history tells the story of the kingdom of
God on earth and God’s plan of salvation for all mankind.
The Divine Plan did not end with the writing of the Bible,
it continues to our own day and beyond and each of us has a
role in the workings of history. Our God is a personal god,
He cares about each individual and wills each of us to
attain salvation. This is the Big Picture of history that we
must convey to our children if they are to come to a true
understanding of history. This is also the purpose and goal
of RC History - to help us all as parents and teachers to
convey the truths of history to the next generation.
*Belloc, Hilaire, Esaays of a Catholic, TAN Books and
Publishers, available from Resource Connections to History
**Lasseter, Rollin A. "Light to the Nations: Reclaiming the
Catholic Historical Imagination." The Catholic Faith 4, no.
4 (July/August 1998): 17-22.
"This “profitable field of knowledge” is the human
discipline invented by the Greeks and Romans. They called it
History, and we of the affiliated West follow them to this
day. It was never a separate “Art” on the cycle of liberal
studies. It was taught and learned as a part of the two
comprehensive artes of human discourse, Grammar and
Rhetoric.
History begins as each human being’s own personal history.
Each carries a personal memory of his own past. The
beginning of it is shrouded in each case, for each must
learn of it by believing the word of his parents. The end of
it is likewise shrouded, although each knows that the end is
certain. This memory of personal events and affairs, of
one’s own res gestae, is an elemental human fact. Linked
with it is a second capacity, that of thinking reflectively
upon the meaning of these events in order to interpret their
significance. This capacity for philosophy and hence for a
philosophy of history is likewise a mark of the human.
History, philosophy and the philosophy of history begin with
the fact of human persons, qualitatively distinct as forms
of life on this planet."
The Lord of History, by Msgr. Eugene Kevane |
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