History really does matter.

History gives us perspective and understanding on where we have come from, who we are and where we are going. History puts wise heads on young shoulders.

The Bible takes history very seriously – unlike all other sacred writings. In fact, the Bible is the source of our western understanding of linear time. The dimensions of past, present and future are not as self-evident as we may think. 

Have you ever noticed that both the Old and New Testaments begin with books about the past, and end with books about the future? In between are books and letters telling us how to engage effectively in the present. Past. Present. Future.

The Bible equips us to be three-dimensional people, rooted in God’s past and focused on God’s future, so that we can be engaged effectively in the present. Rooted. Engaged. Focused.

When autocratic rulers start politicising and revising history, as we are used to seeing in Russia and sadly now see in the USA, we know we are on a dangerous path toward tyranny.

Two authoritative voices I listen to are Timothy Snyder and Anne Applebaum. These links offer messages stressing the need to understand the present, on both sides of the Atlantic, in the light of lessons from history.

Under totalitarian regimes, ‘organised forgetting’ is a widely recognised phenomenon. Revisionist history was a feature of communist regimes, for example, which wished to shape the understanding and expectations of the ‘new socialist man’ to serve the ends of the state. ‘Only the future is certain,’ cynics joked, ‘the past is constantly changing’.  

A more benign expression of ‘organised forgetting’ in our secular times is the loss of historical awareness concerning Europe in general, and of the role of the Bible and the story of Jesus in shaping European culture in particular.

But even Richard Dawkins, the well-known militant atheist, readily acknowledges that one cannot understand European history without knowledge of Christianity and the Bible. 

‘Geloof in Mokum’

That’s true of each of our European nations. And of many of our cities. Including Amsterdam. Last October, Amsterdam began a year of celebration of 750 years of official existence.

That dates from a document dated 1275 authorising the fledgling settlement at the mouth the Amstel river to trade without paying tolls. All manner of celebrations are being held through to next October. 

Under the banner ‘Geloof in Mokum’, we are launching this weekend a series of nine events, one for each century from the 13th to the 21st.

Each event will be in a different historic location as we explore the role that faith (geloof) has played in shaping the city. ‘Mokum’ is a Yiddish word meaning ‘place’, the name Jewish refugees gave to the city.

Everyone, religious or not, is a believer in something. No-one is really an ‘unbeliever’. We all bring our beliefs into our daily lives. So how have these beliefs, Christian or otherwise, shaped Amsterdam through the centuries?

OnSunday, March 2, we started the series in the city’s mother church, the Oude Kerk, the oldest building in the city, a showpiece of Dutch Gothic architecture.

The church staff have adapted the morning service to the theme of faith in the 13th century. What did Amsterdammers believe then? How did that affect their daily lives? What can we learn from them today?

A Gregorian liturgy reflecting 13th century worship will precede a procession through the cavernous sanctuary with stations to observe ancient ceiling paintings of inspirational figures, finishing with a eucharist in the high choir area.

Three phases

Amsterdam’s story reflects Europe’s story. The first three centuries of the city’s life were dominated by the medieval Catholic faith, in which the Church was the sole mediator between God and humanity.

On March 15, we will explore how reports of a miracle really put Amsterdam on the map in the 14th century, drawing thousands of pilgrims from all over Europe, including two Holy Roman emperors.

The next century saw some twenty cloisters appear within the city walls to shape the Amsterdammers’ daily spirituality (March 30).

All this changed in the 16th century when the city embraced the Reformation from one day to the next in May 1578. With huge consequences for freedom of conscience and expression, church life, economic life and exploration.

Reason at first buttressed and then undermined faith and ushered in the Enlightenment era from the 18th century on. Events covering these three Protestant centuries will be held in May and June. 

Over the remaining three modern or secular liberal centuries, 19th to 21st, covered in September and October, faith continued to push back against unbelief, like grass growing through the concrete, in the Reveil (Revival) movement, in Kuyper’s Neo-calvinism, and most recently in the arrival of many migrant churches.

Jeff Fountain, Director of the Schuman Centre for European Studies. This article was first published on the author's blog, Weekly Word.