Why Study the Past? (new edition)

The old saying about being condemned to repeat the history we don''t know applies to Church history as much as to anything else. But we are often at a loss to know how to approach it. Much of what passed once for Church history was propagandist; and much of the best now written is brilliantly done but apparently detached from the Church''s present needs. Rowan Williams offers some reflection on how we think about the past in general.