麻豆社

Good morning. How we view the past is changing all the time. History is a continuing conversation of the past with the present. Every generation views its past differently, as we are seeing so dramatically at the moment. In Cardiff, Edinburgh, Plymouth, Tavistock and Shrewsbury for example, they are looking again at their statues in the light of the horrors of slavery. MP鈥檚 are calling for an examination of the history syllabus in schools to see if it adequately reflects the experience of black people. In London Sadiq Khan says he wants to look not just at statues but at street names and plaques to see if they are appropriate. Looking again means re-evaluating.

One of the features I love about this dialogue with the past is the way people can suddenly be rediscovered. Julian of Norwich, the sublime mystic and first woman to write in English only began to be fully appreciated in the 20th century, 600 years after she died. Similarly the importance of the 17th century painter Artemesia Gentileshi has only been properly recognised in our own time. Most of my generation heard nothing at school about Mary Seacole the British Jamaican nurse in the Crimean war. So this re-evaluation of the past is not just about knocking the greats off their perch but recognising the value those who have been overlooked. And if history is a continuing re-evaluation of the past, then perhaps a true evaluation can only come when the whole human story is fully known.

In relation to this the Christian faith has something startling to say. Four times in the gospels we hear the words 鈥淭he first shall be last and the last she shall be first.鈥� This is not a message the beneficiaries of power have ever wanted to hear. In the Anglican churches of the East India Company evensong was said. This contains the song of Mary, known as the Magnificat with its lines. 鈥淗e hath put down the mighty from their seat and hath exalted the humble and meek.鈥� However the powers that be thought these words might lead to rebellion and so they banned Mary鈥檚 song.

The Christian hope is that in the final re-evaluation we will hear less about the great murderers of history like Julius Caesar who killed a million Europeans for a start and Napoleon, responsible for the deaths of up to six and a half million- and more about the great majority of individual human beings, who whilst so often being exploited, victimised and overlooked still managed to show some kindness to others. So the question is: who do I, who do we as a society, really think worth remembering and celebrating?

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