The Art of Studying History

The past couple of years I have been doing a history curriculum in which the author teaches history with a much different approach than most. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but I'm liking it more and more. The difference? Instead of having to memorize random facts, people, places, and dates, it gives you a huge overview of history. Within each subject, it narrows down on specific aspects, but it still keeps history in the broad sense. Why would this make any difference? It sure cuts down on memorization! After doing this, I feel like I can remember more than if I did history with just the traditional approach, and history just makes a whole lot more sense. Instead of pointlessly memorizing random things, it puts everything into a huge picture which can't be understood unless if you're looking at everything that happened before it and at the time. I guess this history program could be called a study of humanism. With each person you're leaning about, it makes you ask two questions. 1) Who (to the person that you're studying) is God? 2) Who, then, is man? Each of these questions is very easily answered after studying their lifestyle, occupation, and impact.

For example, if you were to look at a painting from the Reformation period and this particular person was of the reformed mindset, you would most likely see some everyday, ordinary things. Chances are, you would also see nature in the picture. Before the Reformation when the Catholic church had so much control, the only thing people thought should be painted were important things such as high positions in the Church and Madonna and Child. This was because the people living then were under such an illusion that they thought the ordinary, everyday man didn't have any importance. The only people who were very important were people that had positions in the Church. After all, to them, the Church was the gateway to Heaven. With this mind set, everything earthly was considered bad. Thus, nature and ordinary things were never painted. During the Reformation time period, the truth was starting to be made known. What a shock it must have been to those people to hear that the only way to Heaven was through the Son! The church started to lose their power and authority. The ordinary man and activities were painted. God created nature, so that, too, was painted. As the Reformation was getting underway, the Catholic church started to realise they were no longer the top dog, so they started commissioning people to paint them again to try to get the people to once again believe the Church was the only way. This is only one example of how much you can tell about a person's beliefs through the art of painting and sculpting.

Another way you can tell a person's beliefs is by what music they write. During the Middle Ages when the Catholic church had so much control, people weren't really aloud to sing in church. The monks in monasteries were the ones and only ones to sing. They had the "right way" of doing things, and they were the important people. Ordinary people weren't going to sing at their services. As the Reformation rolled around, however, people like Luther and Zwingli started writing hymns that the ordinary person could sing. They were also in languages that the ordinary people spoke - not Latin. Coming through and out of the Reformation, people started writing pieces and songs that also reflected their beliefs. Because I know how many of you love Bach (or should...), I'll pick on him. Because Schaeffer can say it a whole lot better than I ever could, I'll just write a quote from his book, How Should Then We Live?.

"JS Bach (1685-1750) was certainly the zenith of the composers coming out of the Reformation. His music was a direct result of the Reformation culture and the biblical Christianity of the time, which was so much a part of Bach himself. There would have been no Bach had there been no Luther. Bach wrote on his score initials representing such phrases as: "With the help of Jesus" - "To God alone be the glory" - "In the name of Jesus." It was appropriate that the last thing Bach the Christian wrote was "Before Thy Throne I Now Appear." Bach consciously related both the form and the words of his music to biblical truth. Out of the biblical context came a rich combination of music and words and a diversity with unity. This rested on the fact that the Bible gives unity to the universal and the particulars, and therefore the particulars have meaning. Expressed musically, there can be endless variety and diversity without chaos. There is variety yet resolution."

Throughout my study of history, I have found it extremely interesting to follow all these ideas through. Because of this history I have done, the different theological ideas and practices started making sense as far as why they did what they did. Nobody just wakes up one morning and decides to start a reformation. There has to be something leading up to it. This happens all through history. After doing just a little bit of history, it becomes evident that, to steal the expression, nothing happens in a vacuum. Everything that happens is a direct result of what has happened before and what people did in response to that.

I would strongly suggest that if you haven't already, read Francis A. Schaeffer's How Should We Then Live?. It is a very easy-to-read book, it's not dry, and it has plenty of pictures. It basically follows these ideas through Rome all the way to modern times, and it says it much better than I do.

History has continuity! Wow, I learned something this year...