Summary of the Senses of 'History' according to Wright: Creating a Foundation for Discussion

In this post I will be summarizing and quoting N.T. Wright. Alomst all of the ideas below belong to Wright, not me.

1. History as an event
• Something happened whether or not we can prove that it happened
• Wright's example: The death of the last pterodactyl.
• "The death of the last pterodactyl is [a historical event in this sense] even though no human witnessed it or wrote about it at the time, and we are very unlikely ever to discover when and where it took place."
• This sense of 'history' can also refer to the existence of people or things
2. History as significant event
• Much of history that is recorded is made up of this kind of history
• Refers to people or events which "carried momentous consequences."
3. History as provable event
• An event whose occurrence can be proved using mathematics or other hard sciences.
4. History as writing-about-events-in-the-past
• "To say that something is 'historical' in this sense is to say that it was written about, or perhaps could in principle have been written about."
• Important variant:
• Oral History
• In the past some regarded spoken history as more reliable than written history. (insertion of my own idea: It will be useful to recognize the beliefs of people at certain times, whether or not we agree with those beliefs. For example, I think that written history is more reliable than oral. However, if someone in the past held oral tradition in higher regard, it will be useful for me to recognize that that person believed such)
5. History as what modern historians can say about a topic
• "that which can be demonstrated and written within the post-Enlightenment worldview." (post-Enlightenment worldview = period in which the field of history can have analogy and/or direct correlation to the hard sciences)

"Confusion between these senses has of course bedevilled this very debate about the so-called 'historical Jesus', the phrase being used by some to mean Jesus as he actually was (sense 1), by others to mean what was significant about Jesus (sense 2), by others to mean that which we can prove about Jesus, as opposed to that which we must either doubt or take on faith alone (sense 3); by others again to mean what people have written about Jesus (sense 4)." - Wright

I think understanding these senses will help prevent misunderstandings in future discussions!