Recent Highlights

WHERE IS THE TRUTH IN HISTORY? HOW DOES THE DISCIPLINE OF HISTORY RELATE TO 'THE FAITH OF THE GOSPEL' (PHIL. 1:27)?

These are the questions addressed by Professor Edwin Judge in this article.

‘Once upon a time History was seen as the first amongst the performing arts. So the current challenge to historical objectivity need only be taking us back to its origins. It was the concept of scientific ‘modernity’ that led to the nineteenth-century ideal. History was to show things as they really were (Ranke, 1824). Now ‘postmodernism’ tells us this was a false trail (Brown, 2005, p.30). Historical experience and historical understanding alike depend upon a more personal or subjective mode of knowledge. Yet to hear only one’s own song, or perform only one’s own dance, is to lose oneself in isolation.’

This historical development of the discipline of history is traced in some detail. ‘The challenge to modernity by ‘postmodernism’ has delivered to us the inescapably subjective character of all knowledge, whether classified by us as ‘scientific’ or ‘historical’ (lit. ‘what is known’ or ‘what is being investigated’). It is indeed the individual mind which is itself programmed to conjure up the very selective and classificatory structures by which we order the seemingly infinite variety and mysterious substance both of things and of people. We can only think in an orderly way, however fluid our senses and feelings. This orderly enquiry is the art of historia, objectify it how we may.’ The case is also made that History turns on personal judgement and ‘the proper safeguard is to be clear about our own criterion of judgement.’

The roles of History and Science are compared. ‘There are indeed two entirely distinct perspectives on everything. We may look for truth in general terms, seeking what applies in every case, or we may look to the individual case, seeking its particular truth. These two perspectives are not of course ultimately different. Both seek knowledge (as ‘science’ implies) and both proceed by enquiry (as ‘history’ implies). But we conventionally use ‘Science’ for the generalising discipline and ‘History’ for the particularising one. They are two dimensions of the same truth, that is, of reality as we experience it.’

How does ‘the faith of the gospel relate to science and history?’ is the question which is then discussed and you can find his answer in his article in the current issue of the Journal, Volume 53, Number 1, May 2010, pp.5-16.