Why Study the Past?: The Quest for the Historical Church

by Rowan Williams

If our exploration of the Church’s history can bring alive the full challenge that this poses to religious and secular tribalism, it will be more than worthwhile. If it can contribute to a certain conversational humility in our garrulous and unself-critical culture, to a better awareness of the labour involved in historical self-understanding, it will have opened a few windows in what can be a dangerously stifling environment. It will have shown a little of what Christians have meant by allying their freedom with the alien sovereignty of God.

I have had to read most sentences in this book at least twice to make sense of them. I think this essay would be more impactful if it were more clearly and concisely communicated. Overall a nice treatise on the value of understanding our history.