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Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation
At the end of his landmark 1994 book, The Soul of the American University, historian George Marsden asserted that religious faith does indeed have a place in today's academia. Marsden's contention sparked a heated debate on the role of religious faith and intellectual scholarship in academic journals and in the mainstream media. The contributors to Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation expand the discussion about religion's role in education and culture and examine what the relationship between faith and learning means for the academy today.
The contributors to Confessing History ask how the vocation of historian affects those who are also followers of Christ. What implications do Christian faith and practice have for living out one's calling as an historian? And to what extent does one's calling as a Christian disciple speak to the nature, quality, or goals of one's work as scholar, teacher, adviser, writer, community member, or social commentator? Written from several different theological and professional points of view, the essays collected in this volume explore the vocation of the historian and its place in both the personal and professional lives of Christian disciples.
"Confessing History fills a large gap in the literature on Christian and especially evangelical historiography. I know of no other book or anthology of scholarly articles that so carefully analyzes how believing historians should work within the intellectual expectations of the guild. And it does so with pristine prose, impressive erudition, and charity of spirit. After reading Confessing History, I find myself compelled to take the prescriptions and proscriptions of the secular academy less seriously and my identity as a Christian historian more seriously." --Grant Wacker, Duke University
"How to reconcile religious commitment with the practices of the guild is one of the really big questions for believing historians. Confessing Historyis essential reading not only for them, but also for any wishing to understand the important issues at stake. In its pages we witness the concerns, questions, and yearnings of a new generation of believing historians and perhaps even the contours of a new approach to Christian historical scholarship." --Donald Yerxa, Director, The Historical Society
"This collection of essays represents serious, sustained, multivalent, and cogent reflection on challenges for Christian historians as experienced by a mostly younger set of scholars. The volume acknowledges foundational work on such subjects carried out by a collection of older evangelical and Reformed scholars--including Ronald Wells, Darryl Hart, and George Marsden--but also moves well beyond these earlier voices, sometimes critiquing what they have written, but also sometimes venturing off into new directions." --Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame
The contributors to Confessing History ask how the vocation of historian affects those who are also followers of Christ. What implications do Christian faith and practice have for living out one's calling as an historian? And to what extent does one's calling as a Christian disciple speak to the nature, quality, or goals of one's work as scholar, teacher, adviser, writer, community member, or social commentator? Written from several different theological and professional points of view, the essays collected in this volume explore the vocation of the historian and its place in both the personal and professional lives of Christian disciples.
"Confessing History fills a large gap in the literature on Christian and especially evangelical historiography. I know of no other book or anthology of scholarly articles that so carefully analyzes how believing historians should work within the intellectual expectations of the guild. And it does so with pristine prose, impressive erudition, and charity of spirit. After reading Confessing History, I find myself compelled to take the prescriptions and proscriptions of the secular academy less seriously and my identity as a Christian historian more seriously." --Grant Wacker, Duke University
"How to reconcile religious commitment with the practices of the guild is one of the really big questions for believing historians. Confessing Historyis essential reading not only for them, but also for any wishing to understand the important issues at stake. In its pages we witness the concerns, questions, and yearnings of a new generation of believing historians and perhaps even the contours of a new approach to Christian historical scholarship." --Donald Yerxa, Director, The Historical Society
"This collection of essays represents serious, sustained, multivalent, and cogent reflection on challenges for Christian historians as experienced by a mostly younger set of scholars. The volume acknowledges foundational work on such subjects carried out by a collection of older evangelical and Reformed scholars--including Ronald Wells, Darryl Hart, and George Marsden--but also moves well beyond these earlier voices, sometimes critiquing what they have written, but also sometimes venturing off into new directions." --Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
372 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2010
About the author
John Fea
16 books60 followersJohn Fea (PhD, State University of New York at Stony Brook) is associate professor of American history and chair of the history department at Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? and writes a popular daily blog, The Way of Improvement Leads Home.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 23, 2026
"Jesus looked at him and loved him." -- Mark 10:21
"Seeing the dead affords practice in seeing the living." -- Beth Barton Schweiger, 77.
"Seeing the dead affords practice in seeing the living." -- Beth Barton Schweiger, 77.
October 10, 2017
I'm currently pursuing my undergrad in History at a Christian university, and this book was assigned for the baseline class that ALL the history majors have to take. It contains several essays from Christian historians that essentially break down what it means to be an effective Christian historian who is actually taken seriously by secular academia while staying true to Christian principles and callings.
As most books that are made up primarily of essays usually are, this was a mixed bag. The majority of the essays are really solid. They stress humility, love, and integrity. There were a couple essays I literally could not follow to save my life, which is why the rating isn't a full 5 stars! But overall, this is a truly useful read that all Christian historians should read.
As most books that are made up primarily of essays usually are, this was a mixed bag. The majority of the essays are really solid. They stress humility, love, and integrity. There were a couple essays I literally could not follow to save my life, which is why the rating isn't a full 5 stars! But overall, this is a truly useful read that all Christian historians should read.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews