Link of the Week #16

Hello readers! As we noted in the recent blog post on history, many today view history as little more than a bunch of dry, boring, and useless facts. But not only is history a rich and rewarding source of knowledge it is also of foundational importance in the life of every thoughtful Christian.

In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon describes the process of learning. According to Solomon, there is a progression as men gain first, knowledge, then understanding, and finally wisdom. Knowledge is gained as we are exposed to the basic "facts" about any given topic. Knowledge serves as the building blocks in learning. But knowledge alone leaves us with nothing but a mass of unconnected dots. That's where understanding comes in. Understanding takes the points of information gained in knowledge and connects the dots to form a full picture. But there are many smart people (both Christians and non-Christians alike) who have both knowledge (familiarity with the basic facts) and understanding (the ability to connect those facts). What sets the mature Christian apart is one thing: wisdom. Wisdom takes the pictures gained through the connected facts and puts that learning to good use. Wisdom is the outworking of both knowledge and understanding.

Now at this point you're probably wondering how all this connects to history! To put it simply, history is one of the best ways for us to grow in both knowledge and understanding. It exposes us to the men, movements, and moments that have shaped our day to day experiences. As we become acquainted with what happened in history (and with the "why" of history) we move closer to gaining real wisdom. And that brings us to this week's link, or links, to be more precise.

This week I'd like to highlight a few of the history podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis. It's our hope that a familiarity with the facts of history will help you to grow in your Christian walk towards greater knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.


Historyzine:



The first podcast I'd like to highlight is the Historyzine podcast run by a man named Jim Mowatt. As the description says about this wonderful podcast, Historyzine is: "History narrative, linguistic history trivia and history podcast reviews, all topped off with the current special feature, which is the War of the Spanish Succession."


Twelve Byzantine Rulers:

The next podcast I'd like to highlight is called Twelve Byzantine Rulers. As the website puts it: "This history lecture podcast covers the little known Byzantine Empire through the study of twelve of its greatest rulers." This is one of my favorite podcasts and the author of this podcast (Lars Brownsworth) is one of the leaders in historical podcasts.

The History of Rome:

The last podcast I'd like to highlight is the History of Rome podcast. As the website says it is: "A weekly podcast tracing the history of the Roman Empire, beginning with Aeneas's arrival in Italy and ending (someday) with the exile of Romulus Augustulus, last Emperor of the Western Roman Empire. " I've found this podcast to be particularly helpful because the creator, Mike Duncan, tackles the massive subject of the history of the Roman Empire in very manageable bites. Each podcast is only about ten or fifteen minutes long and Duncan shows a real skill for knowing which facts are important and which are not.

We hope you enjoy this week's links!