Christian Historiography: Five Rival Versions

by Jay D. Green

Christian faith complicates the task of historical writing. It does so because Christianity is at once deeply historical and profoundly transhistorical. Christian historians taking up the challenge of writing about the past have thus struggled to craft a single, identifiable Christian historiography. Overlapping, and even contradictory, Christian models for thinking and writing about the past abound—from accountings empathetic toward past religious expressions, to history imbued with Christian moral concern, to narratives tracing God’s movement through the ages. The nature and shape of Christian historiography have been, and remain, hotly contested. Jay Green illuminates five rival versions of Christian historiography. In this volume, Green discusses each of these approaches, identifying both their virtues and challenges. Christian Historiography serves as a basic introduction to the variety of ways contemporary historians have applied their Christian convictions to historical research and reconstruction. Christian teachers and students developing their own sense of the past will benefit from exploring the variety of Christian historiographical approaches described and evaluated in this volume.

Genres: History, School

252 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

Reviews

[Scott Meadows · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intriguing introduction to the world of Christian Historiography and the way a follower of Christ could approach the past.

[Anson Cassel Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jay Green, a professor at evangelical Covenant College in Georgia, has been thinking seriously about Christian historiography since graduate school, and this book is even more directly the result of his having taught historiography to college students. In an interview, Green said his intention in writing the book was “to help students understand the variety of meanings contemporary believers have attached to the idea of writing history from a Christian point of view.” Despite some doubts about his notion of “five rival versions,” I think Green has achieved his goal. His book seems especially strong in providing a topical history of recent American Christian historiography, something not as well treated anywhere else.

Stylistically the writing is clear and approachable, even if doubtless few students would pick up the volume on their own. Sometimes the exposition seemed labored and repetitive, and I could have done with fewer “scare quotes,” but overall Green’s book is a fine descriptive text that should be read with profit by college instructors as well as by their students.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

1. Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor. (by the way, I'm a historian... and a Christian)

2. Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor. (by the way, I'm a historian... and a Christian that believes in Christian things)

3. It was wrong for Japanese pilots to bomb Pearl Harbor. We should not bomb people. (by the way, I'm a historian, and moral philosopher, and a Christian)

4. God was preparing for the defeat of the Nazis when the Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor. (by the way, I'm a Christian historian and thus a providentialist)

5. When Japanese pilots bombed Pearl Harbor, it shows us that the Bible is true in saying that all people are sinners. (by the way, I'm an historian, and an apologist, and a Christian)

Or something like that...

B. Grizenko

[Colton Strother · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine introductory entry into the topic. The five versions, which could be summarized as: objective, subjective, moral, apologetic, and providential give some picture as to how Christian's may, in a simplistic sense, generally approach the task of history. Well-written, non-comprehensive.

[Rachel DeWeese · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of different views of Christian historiography that affirmed many of my prior beliefs regarding the subject

[Benjamin Regier · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book only two stars simply because the author addresses a dilemma that does not even exist. Essentially, Green illuminates five rival versions of Christian historiography that are not always mutually exclusive. I found that as the book progressed, the versions of historiography became less credible and academic. I say he addresses a dilemma that does not exist primarily because I’m not sure exactly what “Christian historiography” is. And I can’t remember at any point where he addresses this. While I am a Christian and do maintain a similar perspective that informs my every day worldview, I believe that history is history. History is the recorded past. Historiography should be objective. I indicate that there are spoilers in this review, and that is because the author declares he does not align with any of his five versions...

Overall, I’m not entirely sure what the point of this book was.

[Ben House · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who is a serious student of history, particularly those who want to teach or write history at a secondary or college level, needs to read and study this book.
I needed to have had it 30 plus years ago. Very solid. Very well written.
There are no easy answers to serious history. Yes, God ordains history, but it is up to his servants who are historians and history teachers to study the details and not try to give simplistic answers.
This is a great study.

[Tyson Guthrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Green gives a helpful survey of Christian perspectives on history writing. I would recommend it to history teachers and students who are Christians, and would require it for faculty if I were a history chair. There are a couple lacunae in his work--one and a half, really. First, his work would benefit from a treatment of tradition and historical theological method. Perhaps he sees this as theological territory and not historical, but this is just the kind of disciplinary dissection I would see a book like Green's seeking to undo.
One-and-a-halfly, I am left with the nagging suspicion that not enough has been said. I sense the same struggle in Green himself that the "usefulness of the past" lies somewhere between pronouncements of divine judgment/sanction on historical vales/apexes and a banning of the word "Christian" as an adjective to modify any scholarly endeavor. Green never articulates a thick description of this usefulness, but I'm not sure I could. I'm not even sure it is possible, hence this is only a half-lacuna.