But my point was that history is boring because what is essential to it is extracted and kipped before the pulp is served up in schoolrooms for the delectation of closing minds.
A few years ago, I was asked to teach a class in "The Anglican Reformation" at our diocesan school of theology. I am not a historian. I normally teach ethics and moral theology. But the historian left the faculty and there was an urgent need so I agreed. I wrote to several well known church historians, mostly on seminary faculties, and asked them how I ought to proceed. Some were very kind in sharing ideas and even syllabi. After considering an interesting variety of ways to approach the class, I struck upon my own -- the blame is all mine and not to be shared with my consultants.
I set forth as my premise that Queen Elizabeth I left purposefully unresolved all of the most vexing and contentious issues which now plague the Church of England, the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. I teach the course by looking at the situation she inherited. That is sort of the backstory. Then I look at how she managed to hold England together, in light of what was going on in the Continental Reformation and in Rome. Finally I look at the church which resulted and the people who shaped it into its more enduring form. All of this is arranged around themes of tensions and issues which are hot today in the church.
And nobody dozes off.
