Priests of History: Stewarding the Past in an Ahistoric Age
In Priests of History, Sarah Irving-Stonebraker diagnoses a partial cause of the identity crisis currently plaguing Western culture, generally, and the Western Church, particularly. We do not know ourselves because we have neglected the past. We are “ahistorical,” a term used by Irving-Stonebraker to describe the loss of “meaningful engagement with, and connection to, history” that is prevalent in most Western societies (5). Drawing on her personal experiences and professional expertise, Irving-Stonebraker has produced an excellent work that is at once a robust cultural critique and a passionately personal plea for Western Christians to recover history’s formative power.
In Part I, Irving-Stonebraker sets out to describe the current “Ahistorical Age” characterizing most Western societies. The Ahistorical Age began circa 2010, primarily because of the digital revolution characterized increasingly by digital social media which reinforces the notion that community and identity are self-created (16). There are five characteristics of the Ahistorical Age: a view of the past as a source of oppression and shame from which one should be liberated; a failure to root personal identities in strong historical communities; a prevalence of historical ignorance; a conviction that history has no narrative or purpose; and an inability to disagree peacefully and intelligently about ethical complexities in the past (6). Overall, ahistoricism is underpinned by the “idea that our lives are a matter of self-invention” and that there “are no enduring stories shaping our identities and providing normative direction to public life” (xxi). Much to the diminishment of our culture and personal identities, we “have largely ceased to think of ourselves as historical beings” (xxi-xxii). Though the criticism may not be new to most readers, Irving-Stonebraker’s emphasis on “ahistoricism” provides a valuable framework to make sense of some of Western culture’s more obvious deficiencies.
Tragically, this ahistoricism has also found its way into the Western Church. “I am concerned,” writes Irving-Stonebraker, “that in an attempt to appear ‘relevant,’ the church has largely acculturated itself” to this ahistoricism, “leaving us unmoored from our history and struggling to live distinctive Christian lives” (xxii). In Chapter 3, Irving-Stonebraker describes the five characteristics of ahistoricism within the church: doctrinal drift; individualism and an emphasis on personal comfort; a celebrity/entertainment culture; churches characterized by principles of consumerism and marketing; and “depersonalized ministry models” (40). Ahistoricism in the church has produced Christians who increasingly struggle to understand the history of God’s people and where/how their lives fit within that story. This contributes to “a growing rootlessness and spiritual malaise” (xxiv) and a tendency to uncritically embrace elements of non-Christian culture.
Irving-Stonebraker makes a positive defense of history in Part II of Priests of History. History is a highly personal discipline in which we “attempt to make sense of the past and of time itself” (62). History is a way that we “embed our identity in stories” (70). Through history, human beings begin to make sense of who they “think they are, where they have come from, and where (if anywhere) they think they are going” (62). At an individual level, history involves passing down “memories of memories—stories and practices that tell us who we are in conversation with the past” (71). Historical study is part of humanity’s God-given mandate given at creation (Genesis 1:28) to “create and spread civilization” (75). Because God is creator of history and has acted in history, Christians must see themselves as a historical people within a historically rooted story (74). As part of this, “the Bible instructs God’s people to pass down their history and to learn from it” (75; emphasis original). When combined with biblical literacy, good historical literacy can help Christians in evangelism by giving them skills to “exegete culture” (76) and persuasively present the gospel.
To help Christians think through the practical application of history to their discipleship, Irving-Stonebraker develops a helpful typology of Christians as “priests” of history charged with “stewarding” the past. While studying for her doctorate at Cambridge, she discovered Robert Boyle’s claim that “natural philosophers . . . were ‘priests of nature’” (90). Using this, Irving-Stonebraker evocatively suggests that the past is something we should steward as priests. Old Testament priests were charged to “tend and keep” the temple, “which was the place where God’s presence dwelt” (93–4). The phrase “tend and keep” is used by Irving-Stonebraker to explain two aspects of the calling to steward the past. On the one hand, a historian “tends” to the past by “uncovering the historical stories of people sometimes overlooked, bringing historical injustices to light, and recognizing” past sins, both corporately and personally (96). On the other hand, to “keep” the past means that the historian protects historical knowledge so that it can be passed down.
In Part III, Irving-Stonebraker sets out to show the reader how stewarding history can help with Christian discipleship. Through “mini-histories” and biographies of Christians from the past, she illustrates how Christians in modern, Western societies might incorporate neglected devotional and liturgical practices to better inhabit inherent tensions of the Christian faith, such as the tension between God’s immanence and transcendence. For instance, Western Christians might benefit from recovering “set prayers” to “guide one’s heart” by assisting with the articulation of personal prayers and creating “a posture of repentance, thankfulness, and devotion” (140). A rediscovery of historical rhythms such as regular hours of prayer, the daily office, and Christian seasons like Advent and Lent, would help Christians inhabit a particular story and way of living that is distinct. Past Christians show us how setting aside specific times and places as sacred can help recover a sense of God’s transcendence in a world characterized by naturalistic materialism (154–159). A better understanding and appreciation for Christian tradition would better equip us for addressing important questions raised by our current culture (191).
Priests of History is a powerful and thought-provoking reflection on Western culture and Western Christianity. Sarah Irving-Stonebraker thoroughly illustrates her argument with examples from Christian history and her own conversion testimony, which involved significant exposure to past Christians. The result is a book that illustrates the historian’s particular strengths in evangelism and spiritual formation. The “priest” typology is an especially helpful and original framework to help Christian historians better understand their vocation and calling. Christian historians “keep” history through professional scholarship that uncovers new historical stories or new angles to view old stories. They also “tend” to history by preserving the best of what the past has to offer. The challenge in this calling is to hold these two aspects in a proper balance within the church and the academy. Though Irving-Stonebraker has a foot in both of these worlds, her work would have benefited from more explicit engagement with professional historians and how they might bridge the gap between the expectations of the academy and those of the church. The book seems to be aimed at a general audience, though readers not already sympathetic to more disciplined and liturgical worship may have difficulty relating to some of the book’s recommended applications in Part III. Some further argumentation was needed to clarify how exactly ahistoricism contributed to some of the tendencies within Western Christianity described in the book’s early chapters. That Western Christianity has strong consumeristic and entertainment tendencies is difficult to dispute. How precisely ahistoricism contributes to this consumeristic and entertainment culture needs a more thorough explanation.
Irving-Stonebraker frequently appeals to the Bible and uses strong biblical reasoning in Priests of History. Because the Christian God reveals himself in history, to be ahistorical is to be deprived of one key aspect of knowing God. The Christian faith has many commands to remember or to pass down particular traditions and practices as a way of forming individual and corporate identities and characters.1 To embrace ahistoricism means that we do not remember or inhabit the works of our great and good God, and therefore, more easily forget him and ourselves. To avoid this disaster, Priests of History should be read by all thoughtful Christians. They will be challenged to consider ways they can use neglected historical resources to intentionally invest in their own spiritual formation and that of their family, church, and, ultimately, culture.
