Liberal Arts Curriculum in 2 Minutes

It’s a breathtaking video. Brilliant in conception, and thrilling in scope. In two minutes, you experience everything from the Big Bang to the current day – all of history and civilization in seconds.

Stop reading, take the two minutes, and view it here.

Overlook for the moment its obvious nod to evolution, though it did seem to throw in an image of an Adam and Eve. Overlook as well its obvious concern for the end of it all through global warming.

When it was over, my mind and spirit immediately settled on something else that was, well, unsettling.

The most defining Person, and most defining movement, in all of history was omitted. The arguable centerpiece of civilization was starkly absent.

There was no Jesus, and no Christianity. In fact it went from Egypt to Greece to China and then… jumped right to the Renaissance.

Yes, a painting by da Vinci was included of the Last Supper, but chronologically, this was inserted as an example of Renaissance art, not historical significance.

In many ways, this is the story of much of current historical revisionism.

But let’s state the facts: the story of Western civilization is, by and large, the story of Christianity and the church. You cannot discuss the fall of Rome, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, the Renaissance, or even contemporary American culture without discussing the Christian faith.

So while this might be a liberal arts curriculum in two minutes, it is far from a complete one.

It needs another minute or so, and all of it centered on the most influential Person and movement in history.

James Emery White

Sources

Marcelo Gleiser, “A Liberal Arts Curriculum in Two Minutes,” National Public Radio, September 24, 2014, read online.