Walk Thru History's purpose is to help people discover the Big Story of our world by telling lots of the little stories that make it up.
Now that statement obviously has lots of assumptions and prejudices built into it. Is there really a "Big Story?" What religious or political prejudices shape your worldview? Which little stories get picked -- and why -- to illustrate the "Big Story?"
I'm working on a page -- should be up soon on the site -- that will attempt to "fly my flag" and answer those kinds of questions. Check back soon. But in the meantime, let me say that I my worldview and understanding of the "Big Story" is shaped by:
- I am a Christian who believes in the historic, "catholic" or "orthodox" Christian faith: the major creeds of the early church and the core doctrines of mainstream Christian thinkers from Augustine to Aquinas to Calvin to Kuyper to C.S. Lewis.
- I am a product of the culture and historic thread of Western civilization and think that -- despite all of its shortcomings, failures and darkest moments -- it has produced a world that has produced a level of freedom, prosperity and human dignity that is unique and admirable.
- I treasure and delight in discovering the variety of cultures around the world and throughout history, and believe that we should study and encounter them, but I do not believe that all cultures are of equal moral and practical worth. Part of the reason to explore them is to discover and make use what is best in mankind's story and reject what is worst.
- I believe that in the course of human events, as it says in the book of Ecclesiastes, t
here are times and seasons for everything, and those are the chapters of the Big Story.
Maybe it would be easier to start with what WTH is not. It is NOT:
- Academic or scholarly
- Meant to be an educational or reference site
- Necessarily totally accurate
- An fair or objective forum (see "opinion and commentary above")
- Prestigious, respected or seriously regarded
Walk Thru History IS:
- A collection of stories from history that are interesting to me
- Opinionated
- Meant to inspire you, to make you laugh, to make you weep (is this boring you like it is me?)
- Meant to be to history what current events blogs are to... well, current events. In fact, Walk Thru History is a current events blog about events that are exactly current, but maybe are relevant to events that are actually more, you know, current
- Meant help us see how all these little stories add up to become the Big Story of our world