Patterns in History: A Christian Perspective on Historical Thought

by David W. Bebbington

Book Overview

In this concise volume, historian David Bebbington offers a summary of various theories of history from ancient times down to the present. Patterns in History provides Christian students of history with a trusted guide in what Mark Noll has described as "the best evangelical introduction to the history of history writing." The updated and expanded fourth edition contains a new chapter on postmodern history, making an already important book...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1481308696
• ISBN13: 9781481308694
• Release Date: November 2018
• Publisher: Baylor University Press
• Length: 245 Pages
• Weight: 0.81 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

"Good, but not religious good"! (Hardy)

I am a professor at a Christian university, and I teach historiography once every year. As I do critical theory also, and as I am trained in history and philosophy of science, I have found that my students over the years--most of whom are evangelical Christians--find mainstream, state-of-the-art historiography rather heavy going. After all, they are history students and favor the concrete over the abstract. The canteen and bullet school and all that. Truth to tell, they would happily do without the historiography of my ilk as it were, altogether. This is to say that teaching this cohort of students over the years has discouraged me from going too "postmodern". The students just do not process well this threshold of meta-level inquiry. Additionally, it often rubs against the grain of their unreflective epistemology. David Bebbington's has been one of the few texts that has worked for my purposes. Bebbington has an appreciative, non-fundamental, approach to historiography that, while hardly rigorous, registers with my students. It works. There may be others in my position, and I offer these observations for what they are worth. Bebbington is to be praised for having produced a "niche text". I shall use his book in the spring.

Wonderful insight into different understandings of history.

I read Patterns in History this past year and was suprised at how thorough it was in it's approach to the various kinds of historical intertpretation. Providing the reader with the necessary cultural context in which each view was birthed, Bebbington reveals the foundational thoughts and beliefs of many of the historians we read and respect. I specifically enjoyed his critique of the Marxist understanding of history. For the first time I was able to see where the Marxist thought had progressed from and where it will inevitably end up... hopeless, with no firm moral foundation on which to rest. This book was a challenge to read in some areas, as the author is not a terribly skillful writer, but I encourage enyone with a passion for history and historical interpretation to try this book. You will not be disappointed.

An overview of the major schools of historiography.

Bebbington looks over 5 of the major "schools" of historiography, including, Linear, Cyclical, Christian, Marxist, and Historicist. It is a good textbook for post-graduate study and is highly recommended for those who are students of history as well as those who are serious history "buffs". Bebbington does a good job of bringing out the strengths and weaknesses of each school. There is an updated edition from the 1979 edition which includes some minor changes in the text and a new preface and a new closing. Well worth the read. It is a relatively short work, and my only real gripe with the work was that it was too short. This could easily become a multi-volume work, but that wasn't it's purpose.