So finally we approach the end of the history of 17,000,000,000 years compressed into 10 weeks - surely many details had to glossed over to accomplish this!  History holds interest for me if the stories are compelling.  Well, there are plenty of compelling stories, some inspiring, others horrifying.  Knowing that mere cataloging of facts is not feasible due to storage and time constraints, the choice of which items to catalog is limited given the need to narrow the focus. We are then left with a subject matter more resembling philosophy than a "hard" science.  And once we stipulate this and sign on for it we can enjoy the ride.

Strayer assembled his collection of stories for his own reasons, but the impact of the collection on the reader is bound to be as varied as the reader's own life, or endlessly varied.  It is easy to read histories and find a dreary litany of sins and crimes.  These are there for the finding, in plenitude!  But why can one reader get depressed by this while another is energized?  The depressed reader is more likely to echo the sadness documented in history.  There is another factor at work which is quite appropriate for NDNU - faith.  Faith is what enables one to read about the indignities of the world, even the scourging and execution of Jesus, and still see a more positive outcome ahead.

The in-class discussion about what lies ahead after the modern era touched on many things but not much on evolution.  Society is evolving, quite rapidly in fact, and this involves some serious growing pains and dramatic fits and starts. We often focus on the one step back without recognizing the two steps forward which preceded it. The second coming, the end times, the apocalypse, these things are not, cannot be known to us.  The person of faith believes in a promise from God, that things are getting better.  We can't always see it, that's why it's called faith!  If we choose to believe the words, those things will come "like a thief in the night." 

The chapters on the religions of the world managed to capture some facts about the people involved in large movements without giving much thought to what impels men in this direction to begin with.  While people do have imaginations, does this account for the nearly universal quest for greater understanding of the universe and one's roll in it? Or for love itself?  We observe the animal kingdom exhibiting some aspects of caring for offspring, even affection among members of the animal community but does this explain love?  Love is these things but is also far more than them.  The existence of God has great explanatory power as well as great predictive power.  The only thing keeping it from meeting the hallmark of a science is the lack of an empirical body.

Strayer and other historians bear a responsibility to present their collections of historical facts in such a way as to inspire the readers, not discourage them. To be purely lurid in recounting history makes one the equivalent of popular movies which alternately titillate and overwhelm the senses while rarely offering a message of hope.

Hope is all well and good on its own but we also have the responsibility to act.  Our actions can be the actualization of our hopes.  In class the question came up "What will the future historians make of our acts?" While this is highly speculative, if they can say we acted sincerely, wisely, intentionally, lovingly, then we have nothing to worry about. Being judgmental is a part of human nature but who's judgment is most important to the person of faith, God's or some unspecified future historian?