"The arc of history is long, but it bends towards freedom" - Attributed to Martin Luther King Jr (sometimes with 'justice' rather than 'freedom') and cited in one of the Bible studies I attended at Assembly.  Given my work on history, this made me think quite a lot.  Is the 'arc' the trajectory and the 'freedom' (or 'justice') the 'end' or 'telos'?  Is the 'bending' the natural shape of the 'arc', or is it something that occurs, perhaps as a result of grace or the 'lure of divine love'?  Is it that history tends towards freedom/justice, or that it it can be bent towards these?  In other words, is freedom inevitable if we wait long enough or must it be worked for?  Could freedom in fact be a subversion of the more self evident trajectory where the powerful and oppressor seem to triumph throughout recorded history?  Is it, in fact, that in Martin Luther King's expression there is an essentially theological understanding, an eschatalogical element, that one day, when all is made new, there will indeed be freedom and justice?  And is the 'now and not yet' of Christ's incoming Kingdom somehow what nudges us to seek freedom now?  And if all this is true, what does it say for the writing and reading of history within the Christian tradition?  All very complicated, and my brain is still too mushy to work it out yet.

So instead, off into some slightly flippant word games with the words 'arc' and 'ark.'

History as being like Noah's ark - the essentials to start a new life after the purging away of a corrupt life, literal or mythological.  I wonder what would be the 'clean animals' and 'unclean animals' we would select to save so that when we founded a new life we had the essentials we need?  What stories, what knowledge, discoveries, objects or technologies would we take into our ark? 

History as like Moses' ark of Covenant - a repository for things that need to be remembered - stone tablets, manna... an elaborately decorated box that has the precise purpose of linking us back to those who went before us, reminding us of their stories (good and not so good) and of God.

Arc as 'bow' - as rainbow - back to Noah!  History as a symbol, a sign, that points beyond itself.  Is that possible?  Is there maybe a covenantal element to history - 'when you see this you will remember...'?  The rainbow as a symbol of covenant is both a pointing back and a pointing forward - because you remember this so the memory should prompt you to do/be that...

If we can/should read/interpret the Bible in covenantal perspective (which seems good to me) might something similar be said of reading/writing/interpretting/applying the past?  Obviously questions of authority emerge but the parallels may be there.

I'm not sure that this makes any real sense, but it's roughly where my mind wandered yesterday.