Being A Christian Historian Essay

What does it mean to be a Christian historian? How does one search through and interpret the past, but at the same time, hold true to our Christian values and beliefs? And how do we discern what these “Christian values” are? To me, being a Christian historian is being objective while attempting to integrate a multitude of perspectives, including a Christian perspective, into the history we research. There were five different scholars that were read in support of this essay. McKenzie, Fea, Kugler, Anderson and Winn all played key roles and each had their own interpretation of what it means to be a Christian historian. Interestingly enough, their perspectives are somehow linked into their areas of expertise and field of study. In McKenzie’s

He uses the proposal that we are more apt to learn about people in the past that are familiar to us or that we can develop a personal connection with, the idea that we reflect on the past in search for our own religious identities and lastly, that we do these truthfully. I find this approach to be mostly accurate. I agree with his first idea, that we are more willing to study what we find familiar and can connect with. Now Fea does offer another idea to the integration of Christianity and history. Another historian that would offer a argument of what it means to be a Christian historian is Dr. Mike Kugler. Kugler’s stance on being a Christian historian is again, just a little bit different. He says it is to express one’s identification with Jesus by seeking out and researching the forgotten and marginal aspects of history. I don’t know if I quite understand Kugler’s stance. Why must we make such an effort to research and understand the forgotten areas of our historical past? Is that because he feels that we need to make an attempt to never loose pieces of history or let them become forgotten? Is it because it is sort of a biblical reference? How Christ was always mindful of the outcast or