As a history major, I interact regularly with historical accounts which vary from books, letters, and journals, to artifacts and oral histories. Many things historians read include religious topics. Some of these can be thought of as controversial. For instance, looking at historical accounts of Jesus sometimes contradicts what was written about him in the Bible. For these reasons, I think that most people believe that studying history limits faith entirely. I disagree though. I think that learning about Jesus from the Bible alone creates an image of him that more resembles a fairy tale than an actual man who once existed. Reading about Him from other sources gives facts about His life that make Him a real person. For some people, this image of a real person, rather than the impossible, may limit their faith, but I find that my faith has a much stronger foundation than what I had before, relying solely on stories from the Bible.
In Rome, for example, travelers and tourists come from around the world on religious pilgrimages to visit the stairs brought by the mother of the Emperor Constantine; stairs that were thought to be the very same that Jesus walked up to hear his verdict from Pontius Pilate. History later disproved this thought, but knowing that the stairs at Santa Scala may not have been walked on by Jesus at all does not take away from the meaning behind them. People still flock to this site every day by the thousands! Even if the stairs are not authentic, the people believe them to be. They come to worship Jesus and follow His footsteps where they believe He walked. These visitors’ beliefs are not diminished by history.
I believe that, if a person’s faith can be crushed by a single historical question, their faith was not very strong to begin with. If it were discovered someday that Jesus’ ability to walk on water was nothing more than a sandbar in the middle of a lake, my faith would not be shaken. My faith in God does not stand simply on Jesus’ ability to perform miracles. It runs much deeper than that. So for me, history does not hinder faith in a Higher Power. Rather, it bolsters faith by giving its readers a true image of what they’ve only read about in their holy books, or heard in their church’s teachings. If the Bible were full of scientifically proven facts, there would be no Christian faith. There would simply be knowledge. Faith and knowledge are two separate things for me. I have faith that Jesus is God’s son, but I have knowledge that the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. Both are absolutely true for me, but one is fact, the other is faith.
Recently it has been discovered that Jesus was not born on December 25 in the year zero, but more likely in March sometime during the first century BC. December 25 was chosen as the day to celebrate Jesus’ birth because it was a pagan holiday. Early Christians wanted to make it easier to convert pagans by choosing similar dates for holidays. Does this affect your faith at all? Will this make you refuse to celebrate Christmas? Of course not! (Or at least, it shouldn’t.) Why not? Because faith is not based on historical facts.
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