History as Power Play

Propaganda can be inspired.

We’ve know for some time that the books of First and Second Chronicles are essentially Davidic propaganda (and I mean that in the nicest way possible). Contrast this to the books of First and Second Samuel that aim to point out the great failings of the kings so that Israel (and we) might see with new eyes their great sin of choosing an earthly king over a heavenly one.

I am currently teaching a Medieval History course at a local Christian Study center and we are reading through Eusebius’ Church History. Talk about propaganda. While much of his history is straight from the pages of holy writ, much of the rest is steeped in traditional ideology, making the players in his history often seem larger than life. While God’s Word takes great pains to show us the sins of good people, Eusebius often strives to make bad people better. Remember, Eusebius had a patron by the name of Constantine and therefore is no stranger to the effects of power upon history.

On this theme, here is John Vincent from his book, The Intelligent Person's Guide to History:

History is about the rich and famous, not the poor. History favours the articulate, not the silent. History is about winners (including those losers who were eventual winners), not about losers. History is about assessing distortions, not copying out truths. History has to live with, is indeed the child of censorship: the censorship by one culture of it predecessor, the censorship by a great modern bureaucracy of its own overproduction of records, the censorship of astute reticence by those aware that the eye of posterity will watch them. History has much to say about the way the powerful handle power, for power engenders records. History is almost silent (so far) on psychology, but copious on sociology in the sense of social structure (less so, perhaps, on sociology as values). History is hopeless on love, but excellent on hatreds. Such a state of things may not please all, but then it was never meant to please. One-sidedness lies at the heart of historical knowledge.

We would do well to read history with a view to the true nature of man so that its propaganda might teach us humility.

(Quote via Mohler)

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