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Christianity and History
This book has hardback covers.Ex-library,With usual stamps and markings,In poor condition, suitable as a reading copy.No dust jacket.
146 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1949
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August 29, 2025
This short book consists of seven lectures about the implications of Christianity for the study of history. One of the key things to remember is that Butterfield is himself a Christian historian whose own religious faith led him to certain conclusions about the discipline of history and historiography in general.
His commitment to an Augustinian view of human nature that simultaneously affirms man's fallenness and dignity led him to reject what he elsewhere called a "whiggish" interpretation of history. What he means is that we cannot neatly divide history into perfectly righteous winners and totally wicked losers; those nobly on the side of Progress and those who stubbornly resisted the inevitable. The "texture of history," he says, is far too delicate for it is always a story of those who are only half-right or half-too willful.
That history is mostly the study of fallen humanity, of which we are also part, means we treat the objects of our study with a healthy dose of charity-not excusing their crimes but humbly admitting that the human will is always bound by circumstances that are often outside our control. The task of the historian is not to render moral judgment on the people of the past but understand history on its own terms (what Butterfield called "technical history").
Butterfield is also mindful of Christianity's historical claims. Christians worship the God of Nature who is also the God of History. The great heritage of biblical religion, Butterfield says, is the prophetic reflection on the strong arm of Providence bringing about whatsoever comes to pass. Israel's dealings with a personal God who entered into time stirred ethical and moral reflection on their history and remains an indispensable element of historical analysis today. However, Christianity being a religion of the heart means all historical "judgments" are ultimately self-directed. History is soul-craft for its students as they wrestle with their own cupidity and seek the good for themselves and their posterity in the time they're given.
All of this leads Butterfield to reject utopianism of any form. Far too many people try to use history to justify terrible human sacrifices in the present for a hypothetical future which they are entirely incapable of securing. These ideologues rage against Providence and turn divine image-bearers into mere canon fodder in their endless pursuit of the end of history. They forget that man's chief end is not the triumph of some -ism but the glory of God and their enjoyment in Him.
Butterfield's Christian history is also a more humane history-and one we need more of today.
His commitment to an Augustinian view of human nature that simultaneously affirms man's fallenness and dignity led him to reject what he elsewhere called a "whiggish" interpretation of history. What he means is that we cannot neatly divide history into perfectly righteous winners and totally wicked losers; those nobly on the side of Progress and those who stubbornly resisted the inevitable. The "texture of history," he says, is far too delicate for it is always a story of those who are only half-right or half-too willful.
That history is mostly the study of fallen humanity, of which we are also part, means we treat the objects of our study with a healthy dose of charity-not excusing their crimes but humbly admitting that the human will is always bound by circumstances that are often outside our control. The task of the historian is not to render moral judgment on the people of the past but understand history on its own terms (what Butterfield called "technical history").
Butterfield is also mindful of Christianity's historical claims. Christians worship the God of Nature who is also the God of History. The great heritage of biblical religion, Butterfield says, is the prophetic reflection on the strong arm of Providence bringing about whatsoever comes to pass. Israel's dealings with a personal God who entered into time stirred ethical and moral reflection on their history and remains an indispensable element of historical analysis today. However, Christianity being a religion of the heart means all historical "judgments" are ultimately self-directed. History is soul-craft for its students as they wrestle with their own cupidity and seek the good for themselves and their posterity in the time they're given.
All of this leads Butterfield to reject utopianism of any form. Far too many people try to use history to justify terrible human sacrifices in the present for a hypothetical future which they are entirely incapable of securing. These ideologues rage against Providence and turn divine image-bearers into mere canon fodder in their endless pursuit of the end of history. They forget that man's chief end is not the triumph of some -ism but the glory of God and their enjoyment in Him.
Butterfield's Christian history is also a more humane history-and one we need more of today.
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