12 March 2018

Christian Historiography, Recurring Patterns and Interpreting Current Events


In a recent article referencing history as an interpreter of current events, I said: The lessons and realities of history are on his side and there's a real comfort in that, especially in the face of storm and assault. Those who study history with open eyes will know great sorrow and frustration. They will often stand alone but having walked the paths of the past... they need not fear. They've seen it all before.
A further elaboration was requested and is in order.


This is a position contrary to 'being on the right side of history', a progressive even sometimes Hegelian notion that views historical currents in terms of destiny... not the destiny leading to Parousia fires but rather (from a Biblical perspective) to Babel masquerading as Utopia and Elysium. The progressive impulse is deeply rooted in the Western psyche and particularly in the New World. It's no wonder it took deep roots in American thought. The commitment to democracy and a host of additional Enlightenment ideals have always been wed to progress... these notions are but a step-child or modification of the Protestant impulse to break with Medievalism, recast the world and culturally build the Kingdom of God.
This is why Whig History, a belief in progress and cultural advancement and (for Protestants) the idea that these attainments were expressions of the Kingdom was born in the Post-Reformation milieu. Though not readily admitted, the Reformers and particularly the Scholastics who followed in their wake planted the intellectual and epistemological seeds for their own destruction (which came by means of Enlightenment) and by the 19th and 20th centuries the old 'progress' of Protestant Postmillennialism had been transformed into a secular kingdom vision. Whether utilising the moniker of the Social Gospel or some form of civic minded patriotism this impulse still seeks the 'Kingdom', retaining some notion of the concepts but only aspects of the old vocabulary.
While heartily rejecting Roman Catholicism as a false form of Christianity I nevertheless also reject the Neo-Christendom project of Protestantism as well as its extra-scriptural intellectual foundations. While Sola Scriptura is enshrined, a more careful examination of the intellectual and philosophical pedigree of Protestantism demonstrates this principle was all but abandoned (or at the very least modified) and in fairly short order. The hybrid forms of Protestantism that emerged by the mid- to late16th century were already set on a wayward path leading to the modern world. Classical Liberalism, progress and even Modernity, once celebrated by the Whig historians are now concepts generating hesitation. Today most conservative thinkers, particularly the more reflective ones, necessarily must pause and reconsider the question. Even if technological advance is reckoned a blessing and gift from on high, there are not a few who question the legacy and cost of reshaping the political and social order. Few (I'm afraid) have rightly considered the effects of industrialisation and technology and the economic systems they have produced on the life of the family, the re-structuring of communities and the shift in values with reference to time, possessions and how security and respectability are defined.
Additionally there has been a failure to recognise how such restructurings have affected the life of the Church. This in part explains why even today, generation after generation of 'conservatives' continue to capitulate to the culture. Led by the blind guides that are their church leaders, committed more to middle class security and respectability, they are unable to divorce themselves from the monied bureaucracies of which they are a part. Antithesis is not in their nature and thus they fall prey to the 'progress' of the age and instead of resisting the world they allow it in... just a generation or two later.
Do the Scriptures present a positive or progressive view of history? Certainly not for the Church, at least not before the Parousia. Ultimately the victory is ours and glory awaits.... in the age to come. This Age is marked for doom and subjected to cycles of futility. Certainly this ought to affect our understanding of history. Eschatology helps to shape both epistemology and ethics. Our historiography need not be wholly cynical as indeed the Church is at work in the Earth spreading the Gospel. There is hope, but not in tribe, institution, flag, charter or war the very things championed by the False Church and its prostituted leadership as it seeks to build Pseudo-Zion.