THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY IN THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

'...history is important, for without it we are at the mercy of whims. Memory is a databank we use to evaluate our position and make decisions. With a biblical memory we have two thousand years of experience from which to make the off-the-cuff responses that are required each day in the life of faith. If we are going to live adequately and maturely as the people of God, we need more data to work from than our own experience can give us. 

What would we think of pollster who issues a definitive report on how the American people felt about a new television special, if we discovered later that he has interviewed only one person who had seen only ten minutes of the program? We would dismiss the conclusions as frivolous. Yet that is exactly the kind of evidence that too many Christians accept as the final truth about many much more important matters - matters such as answered prayer, God's judgement, Christ's forgiveness, eternal salvation. The only person they consult is themselves, and only experience they evaluate is the most recent ten minutes. But we need other experiences, the community of experience of brothers and sisters in the church, the centuries of experience provided by our biblical ancestors. A Christian who has David in his bones, Jeremiah in his bloodstream, Paul in his fingers tips and Christ in his heart will know how much and how little value to put on his own momentary feelings and the experience of the past week.' 

Eugene H Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, p.160.  

THE POWER OF THE PAST

'The secret of our emotions never lies in the bare object but its subtle relations to our own past: no wonder the secret escapes the unsympathising observer, who might as well put on his spectacles on to discern odours.'

George Eliot, Adam Bede, p.245. 

THE DANGER OF NOSTALGIA

'If we allow ourselves to luxuriate in nostalgia, the myth of a beautiful, long-gone past will solidify, and it will weigh us down. Much as we must fight the idea that we would be happier somewhere else, in another marriage, in a bigger house, we must fight the idea that we were once at home but we never will be again.' 

Jo Swinney, Home, p.225. 

IDEALISTIC BIAS

'The kind of people who are disgusted by an idealised past can often barely contain their enthusiasm for an idealised future.' 

Paul Kingsnorth, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist, p.39.

THE PAST

'We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass.' 

JL Carr, A Month in the Country, p.85. 

THE PAST

'We are forever drawing up indictments against the past, then refusing to let it testify on its own behalf - it is so very guilty, after all.'

Marilynne Robinson, 'Marguerite of Navarre' in The Death of Adam: Essays on Modern Thought, p.182.