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On Teaching the History of Christianity: Traditions and Presuppositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

E. Brooks Holifield
E. Brooks Holifield
Affiliation:
E. Brooks Holifield is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of American Church History at the Candler School of Theology, Emory University. In January 2003 he delivered this paper as the presidential address to the American Society of Church History.
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Extract

In his presidential address to the American Society of Church History in 1920, Robert Hastings Nichols observed that he had discovered, in his reading of previous addresses, “no mention of the reading of a paper dealing with what is the occupation of almost half of our members, the teaching of Church History,” or, as he preferred to call it, the teaching of “Christianity in History.” He decided, therefore, to talk about pedagogy. He devoted most of his address to answering the question why history should be taught in the theological seminary, arguing that it trained students to weigh evidence, calculate motives, trace causes, and estimate the power of social movements. It nurtured a certain kind of intellectual and moral capacity.

Type
Articles
Information
Church History , Volume 72 , Issue 2 , June 2003 , pp. 237 - 250
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2003

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