Christianity and History

by Herbert Butterfield

From book sleeve: "The London Times Literary Supplement has called this the most outstanding pronouncement of the meaning of history made by a professional historian in England since Acton's inaugural. At a time when the philosophy of history and its proper interpretation are so generally discussed, this new and constructive work, simply written, will be in great demand."

Genres: History, Philosophy, Religion, Christianity, Church History, Christian, Theology

189 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1979

About the author

Sir Herbert Butterfield was a British historian and philosopher of history who is remembered chiefly for two books—a short volume early in his career entitled The Whig Interpretation of History (1931) and his Origins of Modern Science (1949). Over the course of his career, Butterfield turned increasingly to historiography and man's developing view of the past. Butterfield was a devout Christian and reflected at length on Christian influences in historical perspectives. Butterfield thought individual personalities more important than great systems of government or economics in historical study. His Christian beliefs in personal sin, salvation, and providence heavily influenced his writings, a fact he freely admitted. At the same time, Butterfield's early works emphasized the limits of a historian's moral conclusions, "If history can do anything it is to remind us that all our judgments are merely relative to time and circumstance."

Reviews

[R.L.S.D · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if the point of reading history was the cultivation of empathy?

" 'All men are sinners and I the chief of them' ; 'There but for the grace of God to I' ; 'Father forgive them for they know not what they do. ' All this seems to be the final effect of the reading of history upon me."

Butterfield's historiographic paradigm may reflect the 20th century modernist's confidence in accessible, neutral facts, but right now I'd be hard pressed to find a better life motto for the postmodern Christian than these concluding words: "Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted."

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A forgotten classic. Much of what Butterfield says is outdated, but all of it is worthy of pondering. Should be required reading for every Christian historian.

[Stephen Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

There have been, in truth, few books I have been more loathe to finish than this one. Butterfield's magnificent prose, his ability to engage in broad but not overly generalized historical analysis, and his deep sympathy for the ordinary lives and personalities of his fellow men have made for a reading experience that I won't soon forget, especially since I encountered this book slowly over the course of a particularly fraught few weeks in the headlines and on the home front. I found him to be eminently relevant -- prophetic, even -- in speaking to current chaoses, and though he wrote originally in the aftermath of WWII and at the cusp of the Cold War, his assessment of Christianity's actual place in history is grounded in the assumption that there is "nothing new under the sun", both in the sense that human nature has always possessed a frightening tendency towards self-destruction and in the sense that human beings have magnificent capacity to bless the world when they have been engulfed by the grace of the Cross: "It is impossible to measure the vast difference that ordinary Christian piety has made to the last two thousand years of European history."

Moreover, one of his primary and most frequent warnings is against the self-righteousness that is endemic to any age -- "it is the one sin that locks people up in all their other sins, and fastens nations more tightly than ever in their predicaments." Christianity, according to Butterfield, "alone attacks the seat of evil" and "addresses itself precisely to that crust of self-righteousness" that says, "[j]ust one little war more against the last remaining enemies of righteousness, then the world will be cleansed, and we can start building Paradise." If only Butterfield knew of the millions of such little wars being waged today in every little corner of the internet.

Yet, instructively, Butterfield also steadfastly refuses to instrumentalize Christianity: "such a faith is [not] properly appropriated when it is adopted with the object of getting society out of a scrape." The Christian faith is a thing entirely other, and the kind Providence that imparts such faith it is truly the only sure foundation for enduring, if not conquering, said scrapes: "Hold to Christ, and for the rest be totally uncommitted." Amen.

[Tyson Guthrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolute mastery of the English language and of historical science coupled with the wisdom to transcend the scientific limitations imposed on his discipline by modernity. I wish scholars still wrote like this. Butterfield is required reading for history teachers and serious students.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite good, with moments of supreme insight. But also a bit scattered, and lacking a certain coherence. Butterfield is, understandably, pre-occupied with WWI and WWII and the atom bomb, so the question of war and diplomacy are the core illustrations and foils for his methodological and theological discussion. On the whole, worth reading if you're a historian wrestling with the questions he is wrestling with.

[Zander Bedingfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely wonderful. A few parts that are a little outdated/old-school and are definitely influenced by Butterfield’s Cold War context, but his overall message remains the same for Christian historians throughout the ages: cling to Christ, for only in Him can the drama of the human past be correctly viewed in a way that satisfies the deepest longings of your soul.

[Robert Hasler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many of the main ideas contained in the essays of this volume reappear in Butterfield's Christianity and History. See my review of that book for more thoughts on those topics.

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking book. The content was all excellent as Butterfield made some strong arguments and some great applications to history. I especially enjoyed chapters 2 & 3 which looked at how history can prove the universal presence of sin and the universal response of judgment to human sin.

That being said, I found Butterfield to be a bit contradictory. In chapter one he claims that history needs to be completely neutral and shouldn't be used to support any one kind of worldview. I personally disagree with this view, as I don't think historians can be as neutral as Butterfield claims or should be (if Christianity is true, it's dishonest to write like it may or may not be true), but Butterfield made a strong case. However, the rest of the book is pretty much Butterfield doing what he said historians shouldn't do. Granted, Butterfield isn't writing a history book per se here, as it's more of a book on the theory of history than a history book. However, I think Butterfield believed that he was being more neutral in this book than he actually was.

So this book isn't necessarily the most consistent book out there. That being said, it had a lot of really good thoughts on how a good Christian should do good history, and even when I disagreed with Butterfield, he argued his case well. Definitely recommended to Christians who want to read more on how to properly write history.

Rating: 4.0 Stars (Very Good).

[Thomas Mackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Judgment in history” in Christianity and History by Herbert Butterfield
…we know now that there is an inadequacy in human nature which makes the reality far different from the ideal...The truth is that if men were good enough neither the ancient city-state, nor the medieval order of things nor modern nationalism would collapse. Neither humanism, nor liberalism nor democracy would be faced with intellectual bankruptcy. Indeed all these systems could exist concurrently…When these great human systems crumble or when the mighty are fallen, it is useless to say that a cleverer politician might have saved them, for his statesmanship is still only the art of dealing with the problems human cupidity has raised or of coping with the willfulness of human beings.
from page 60

Good thought after an election.

[Erik]

Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 14, as one of Eight Collections of Essays and Letters Not To Be Missed.

Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 20, as one of Ten Books on the Humanities.

[Yu Cheng · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not very clear about British side...