About CHF
‘Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was an who is to come… and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the first-born from the dead, and ruler of kings of earth.’ (Revelation 1:4-5)
Christianity affirms that God is sovereign over the whole of history, working out his purposes in human lives. Christian historians are called to uphold the centrality and relevance of Christ’s lordship of the historical process and to ensure that this perspective is intelligently developed in historical research and debate and in the life of the contemporary church. The Christianity and History Forum exists to stimulate and facilitate this process.
Christian history is for us a commitment and state of mind, not a defined methodology or theoretical construct. Theological issues of providence and judgement feature in our discussions, but we are also very much concerned with historical practice. We are not only, or even primarily, a ‘church history’ society, and we see our role as complementing that of bodies such as the Ecclesiastical History Society and denominational history societies, by seeking to explore Christian viewpoints on all aspects of history. Our identity is an Evangelical one, but we welcome constructive involvement from people of other traditions.
The Christianity and History Forum (formerly the Study Group on Christianity and History) has been in existence for over fifty years.
Specific aims are:
1. To promote academic historical thinking and writing based on biblical, Christian principles.
2. To encourage Christians, particularly those studying and teaching history, to approach the subject from a Christian perspective.
3. To contribute to a historical understanding of issues relating to present-day Christian life and witness.
We also circulate newsletters updating members on events and other information likely to be of interest to them. Links are cultivated with similar organisations in other countries, especially the Netherlands and the United States.
We seek to support undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as teachers of History at school and university.