Students present papers at faith and history conference

​Three Grove City College history majors presented well-received papers at The Conference on Faith and History at Regent University on Oct. 20, 2016. Benjamin Allison ’18, Bethany Haughey ’18 and Sam Whiting ’18 attended the conference with Dr. Gary Smith, chair of the History Department. 

Allison’s presented “Views of the Gateway Region on the Spanish-American War – 1898: The Year in Review.” Using personal correspondence, diaries, memoirs, newspapers, local histories and other primary and secondary sources, his paper uncovers and explores the evolution of the views of and reactions to the war in the Gateway Region of New Jersey. 

Haughey’s paper “Holistic Evangelism: How the Missionary’s Cultural Adoption Advances the Gospel” explored the historical, sociological and theological evidence to understand how the missionary should best identify with his audience. By taking examples from the shift in imperialistic in inland mission work in 19th and 20th century China, Haughey concluded that missionaries should adapt to the culture of their audience as much as possible to best reach their audiences for Christ.

Whiting’s paper “Origins of the Rwandan and Yugoslavian Genocides” details the origins of the Rwandan and Yugoslavian genocides of the 1990s. Through extensive research, the paper argued that while people in the West tend to look at these events as one-time occurrence, they are in fact politically complex events that would not have occurred under normal circumstances. 

The Conference on Faith and History is a community of scholars exploring the relationship between Christian faith and history. The conference welcomes members from a variety of Christian traditions around the world and seeks to learn from scholars outside the Christian tradition. The primary goal of the conference is to encourage excellence in the theory and practice of history from the perspective of historic Christianity.

For more about the Department of History at Grove City College, visit www.gcc.edu/hist.