About the Contributor(s): Timothy J. Furry (PhD, University of Dayton) is Instructor of Religion and Philosophy and Chaplain at Cranbrook Kingswood Upper School, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. He is coeditor of Ecclesiology and Exclusion (2012) and author of multiple theological essays, book chapters, and reviews.

What is history? This question can be taken in many ways, including radically skeptical ones, but in 'Allegorizing History' Timothy J. Furry asks the questions not with that axe to grind but because it has become clear to him, through study of Bede and other ancient Christians, that history is not so simple. To be sure, many, if not all scholars, know that thanks to the work of postmodern philosophers and twentieth-century historical theorists like R.G. Collingwood, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Hayden White. In this work, Furry shows that there are competing notions and purposes of historical...