At the end of his landmark 1994 book, The Soul of the American University, historian George Marsden asserted
that religious faith does indeed have a place in today's academia. Marsden's contention sparked a heated debate
on the role of religious faith and intellectual scholarship in academic journals and in the mainstream media. The
contributors to Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian's Vocation expand the discussion
about religion's role in education and culture and examine what the relationship between faith and learning means
for the academy today.
The contributors to Confessing History ask how the vocation of historian affects those who are also followers of
Christ. What implications do Christian faith and practice have for living out one's calling as an historian? And
to what extent does one's calling as a Christian disciple speak to the nature, quality, or goals of one's work
as scholar, teacher, adviser, writer, community member, or social commentator? Written from several different theological
and professional points of view, the essays collected in this volume explore the vocation of the historian and
its place in both the personal and professional lives of Christian disciples.
"Confessing History fills a large gap in the literature on Christian and especially evangelical historiography.
I know of no other book or anthology of scholarly articles that so carefully analyzes how believing historians
should work within the intellectual expectations of the guild. And it does so with pristine prose, impressive erudition,
and charity of spirit. After reading Confessing History, I find myself compelled to take the prescriptions and
proscriptions of the secular academy less seriously and my identity as a Christian historian more seriously."
--Grant Wacker, Duke University