History

One hears from time to time that we must study history, lest we repeat it. That’s never convinced me to crack a book. After a year and a half of classes and discussions amongst a university population largely unaware of history, I’ve decided why. The real danger of not studying history is that we WON’T repeat it. History is turgid with the rule of law, the scientific method and the development of the arts, not to mention countless individual examples of love and heroism. Most importantly, we live within the ever-present history of God’s self-sacrifice for our salvation. If we study history only to get rid of the evil bits, we risk rejecting the good with the bad and trying to reinvent humanity with no reference to the past, strictly according to what we can know by abstraction from the present. And that is how, with the best intentions, we repeat the despicable parts of history again and again.