"Most of all, perhaps we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet need something to set against the present, to remind us that periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many place is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune form the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age." -- C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, Learning in War-Time
Those who have no interest in history, or even worse, a dismissive disposition towards all things historical, will be overly interested in the spirit of their own age and suffer a similar fate as the fashions. The best way to understand your times is to study times past. In order to know what's going on, you have to be well-versed in what's gone before. In other words, to really know what's up, you must also know what’s gone down.
1 Chronicles 12:32
And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment