History

Date: 08 September 2010 09:09:31

My personal history influences how I think, what I think about and how I deal with life. I have however been thinking about how wider history effects all these things as well. We need to know about the past to learn from it and ensure that we don’t repeat the bad things, but also it can teach us much as to why we think how we do. I’ve been watching several history programs on i-player recently that have re-emphasised this to me. Seeing how different factors have influenced what happens, and the legacy that it can leave even thousands of years later is fascinating. It is one factor that shapes our identity, and whatever we may now think, it is part of our make up. It reaches in to areas of our lives that we don’t even realise. Some of us have many different aspects that influence us. Also as well as our own heritage, we can adopt heritage, which starts to shape and form us. I have an evangelical heritage. Learning about the history of evangelicalism helped me to understand where some of my thinking had come from, and what factors had influenced beliefs that are often assumed to be Biblical, but in fact sprung up for different reasons (often using the bible to back them up.) However as we see a big picture we begin to see other factors. I have watched an interesting programme about the covenanters in Scotland. I had been taught to think of the covenanters as a good thing, but it was interesting to re-think. If we fail to look at history, we fail to understand what motivates people, what makes them tick either conscious or sub-conscious. Only when we begin to understand this, can we begin to have empathy that can change both us and them for the better.