Freedom to Tell the Truth

Mr. Jefferson and I

A historian is to tell the truth, as unbiased as he can.  I was asked to give a statement of my philosophy of history, to do so I must first explain my worldview.  Simply put, a worldview is a framework by which one sees the world.  The way I understand a worldview is that is a group of answers to questions everyone asks.  The first is “where do we (mankind) come from?”  The second is, “why are we in existence?” [1]

I follow what is called the Biblical worldview.  I answer the first question, “God created us.”  “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”[2]  This answer assumes two points, first God is real and second the Bible is true.  With the first question answered I can surmise that if God created me he did so with a purpose.  This realization allows me another assumption; He is powerful enough to make His will happen past creation. 

This being said a Biblical worldview makes me a more unbiased historian by doing two things.  First, it allows me to keep God in His place as the mover of history.  I don’t have to make flawed men such as Andrew Jackson, or Abraham Lincoln, gods in an American pantheon.  Second, because the Bible offers an Absolute moral code I can study men and let their own actions speak for themselves.   In the case of Adolph Hitler, my job is to study his actions, as the leader of Germany and of the Nazi party.  In terms of good and evil, his actions are compared to God’s law not my own opinions of right and wrong.  

Presidents Jackson and Lincoln

The Biblical Worldview frees me from creating heroes and villains from history.  It allows me to do what historians are meant to do, tell the truth.

1. Chuck Colson and Nancy Pearcy, How Now Shall We Live (Tyndale House Publishers INC., 2004), 14.

2. Genesis 1:1

The Title Change

       I have recently changed the name of my blog.  It started when I told my father that I was required to write a blog for my class this semester and planned to write more often to practice and get better in my writing skills.  He liked the idea and asked me what I had named my blog?  I answered “It’s called The Historian.”  He humphed and nodded.  I asked “you don’t like it?” He answered frankly “no.”  He explained that it should have more umph.  “You should call it Keating’s Kronicle!” he exclaimed helpfully.  I told him I would think about it.  I did think about it but it wasn’t until the first blog assignment when I got to look at my classmate’s blogs, when I saw that someone had the same name I had.  Not only that but most of their names had history somewhere in their titles.  This is when I decided my Dad was right I needed a name more unique.  So I changed it to The Weaving Chronicle.  To be honest, I am not sure how original of a name it is but the reason I chose it and like it is because the name depicts the story above.  Chronicle is a description of events in the order of which they happened (according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary).  One may ask “isn’t that history?”  No, history is not as Dr. Sam Smith says, a “direct chronicle.”  It is also a narrative, a story told by the observer.  There is a human element to history.  Hence, why I named my blog the “Weaving Chronicle.”  Weaving or to weave means to interlace or intertwine in order to make something else like cloth or a basket.  My intention with this blog is to take the facts and weave them into a history.