Bible History – introduction (1847]
Don Bosco
From the Bible History (1847)
On first hearing of a new course in Bible History, some will say this effort is of little value given the broad range of editions and authors that can already satisfy people of all kinds. I thought the same, but once I began to examine them, I was disabused of this opinion. So, apart from the fact that many of these Histories are too long or too short, I can just say that some, for their high-flown ideas or language detract from the nice and simple and popular nature of the holy Scriptures while others almost entirely omit the chronology of events making it hard for the reader to determine if what he is reading concerns the creation of the world or the coming of the Messiah. And in all of them I find certain ways of saying things that are likely to give rise to less pure ideas in the fickle and tender minds of the young.
So I set about writing a course in Bible History. It contains all the most important information about the sacred books without danger of revealing the less appropriate ideas and you could give it to any young person and say 'Take and read'. With a view to succeeding in this I told any number of young people of various levels all the different biblical facts noting carefully what impression the stories had on them and what results they produced.1
This helped me to know what to leave out or what to treat in more detail. I had many digests of Bible Histories with me and I drew on them for whatever things I felt convenient, enlarging on some that I found clearly and properly explained.2
As for the chronology, I relied on P. Calmet,3 except for some small variations which are demanded by modern critics.
For every page I had one principle in mind: enlighten the mind to make the heart good and (as one gifted teacher put it)4 to popularise knowledge of the Sacred Scriptures as much as possible, since it is the foundation of our holy Religion, while keeping to dogma and its proofs. It is then easier to pass from the stories of Holy Scripture to the teaching of morals and religion.5 No other kind of teaching is as important and as useful as this. Since we know however from wiser teachers6 that Bible History should be taught using the aid of illustrations related to the facts, I have sought to include some engravings concerning the more important facts.7
This History is divided into periods; these in turn are divided into chapters written in dialogue form; this approach, in my view is easier because any kind of story can be understood and remembered by the easily distracted youngster 8
1“The facts… then that seemed more tractable and moving I gave more details about so that not only might the intellect be instructed but the heart might also be moved to its spiritual benefit” – Storia ecclesiastica, preface, p. 10. – “He is convinced of the great educational principle that the mind needs enlightenment in order for the heart to be good and so his entire history revolves around this focus.” – G. Ramello, review of Storia ecclesiastica, in «L'Educatore Primario» 1 (1845) N. 34, 10 Dec. p. 576.
2“His models for the Storia sacra per uso delle scuole (1847) would not be so much Tirino or Calmet or Martini (which he had with him, however) but the small books by Loriquet, and especially Storia del popolo ebreo compendiata dal prof. Francesco Soave C.R.S. Ad uso delle scuole d'Ialia, and the Storia Sacra by Fr Cipriano Rattazzi, who imitates the excellent Storia del Vecchio e Nuovo testamento ossia della Bibbia Sacra con riflessioni morali, by Le Maître de Sacy, or Royaumont, published by another printer friend of Don Bosco's, Giambattista Paravia” – P. Stella, Don Bosco nella sotria della religiosità cattolica, vol I, p. 231.
3P. Calmet Antoine, Dom Augustin, Benedictine (1672-1757), one of the most fruitful and esteemed exegetes of the 18th century, author of Commento letterale on the Old and New Testaments in 23 volumes (1707ff), amongst other works, and a Dizionario storico, critico, cronologico, geografico e letterale della Bibbia (1719) and a Storia sacra dell'Antico e del Nuovo testamento (1718). In the Dizionario we find a classic Table chronologique générale de l'Histoire de la Bible. – “Given that I had read Calmet, Storia dell'Antico e Nuovo testamento…” – MO 110.
4Fr Feccia in the Educatore Primario, editorial. Agostino Fecia, priest, born at Biella in 1803, died in Turin in 1876. He was a prolific author of Italian language textbooks and founder and editor of L'Educatore Primario. Giornale d'educazione ed istruzione elementare (1845-1846), then /L'Educatore. Giornale di educazione ed istruzione (1847-1848). In the second version the magazine was also aimed at teachers and came out in two monthly installments of 32 pages each. The pedagogical and didactic topics were systematically developed, so that – as the editors wrote – a year's collection can be “almost a theoretical and practical course in Pedagogy and Method”. The magazine's plan for 1848 foresaw the division of material into the following five sections: 1. General Method and Pedagogy. 2. Special method and practical exercises. 3. News and documents on public education 4. Bibliography, announcements and reviews of the better books on education and teaching. 5. Various, stories and poetry for children.
5“It is not untimely then that children get to know the main events of this history that is also the history of mankind. You add that nothing else could be more useful and we responded to the first two observations: since I would like it to be considered as the essential tool for learning the teachings of religion, because I believe that it does more than a little damage to to religious belief to explore it as a tradition without life, as a series of unconnected dogmas, abstractions that do not have any orresponding reality; while Bible History implicitly contains dogmas and the proofs and also at times explicitly. This way one can more easily and gradually pass to religion and morals. Whoever realises how necessary it is for truth to be presented in its light, life and reality knows at the same time that no other teaching can be more useful” – Vincenzo Garelli, Dell'insegnamento della storia col mezzo di tavole, in «L'Educatore Primario» 1 (1845) N. 24, 30 Aug., p. 406.
6V. Varelli [=Garelli] Educat. Prim. Vol 1, p. 406. Vincenzo Garelli, born in Mondovì in 1818 and died 1879, a lover of philosophical and pedagogical studies and professor of Method at Mondovì, Genoa and Turin. From 1859 he was a school inspector in Genoa and Turin and was particularly good to Don Bosco and his works.
7“Coming then to Method, here are the rules that Aporti prescribes: 'Bible history needs to be taught to children with the aid of illustrations which represent the facts they refer to…”. This approach has great advantages, makes the teaching more gradual, involves and guides the imagination of the children, educating it to the good and the beautiful. So we warmly recommend this collection of tables to those in charge of kindergartens and nursery schools and to better-off families who can adorn the walls of the rooms they normally live in” – V. Garelli, Dell'insegnamento della storia col mezzo di tavole, pp. 406-407. – Cf. Ferrante Aporti, All'onorevole Commissione degli asili infantili di Torino, and Manifesto da Gallo Gallina pittore istorico – «L'Educatore Primario» 1 (1845) N. 13, 10 May, pp. 207-208.
8“Shorter papers have their proper place in today's circumstances that not only our times and habits entrust to them but also the requirements of science; because they have the task of breaking knowledge down and giving it out in small doses or as we say today, popularising it” – Fr Agostino Fecia, Introduzione to N. 1 of the «Educatore Primario» 1 (1845), 10 Jan. p. 1.
