The Bluffton University department of History and Political Science, in close cooperation with the Religion department, plays a critical role in meeting the college's larger mission - as our department introduces students to the "historic peace church tradition" that has shaped the college, traces human striving and neglect of "excellence," and "seeks to prepare students of all backgrounds for life as well as vocation, for responsible citizenship, for service to all peoples, and ultimately for the purposes of God's universal kingdom." While helping students gather knowledge about the events and contours of human history, as well as the dynamics of collective human decision-making, our larger mission is to help students become wise interpreters of human affairs -- able to handle evidence, weigh interpretations, and craft their own arguments as skilled writers and emerging citizens who have shaped their worldviews in conversation with that of Anabaptist Christianity and its view of history.
