Growing up in a non-denominational, Evangelical church, I attended Sunday school regularly, was involved in youth group, faithfully went to our weekly services, and attended a Christian school, and yet upon my entrance to college, I had no sense of how our church arrived at its present state. There was a gap in my mind between the toga-wearing Christians of the New Testament and the tonsure-sporting Martin Luther of the Protestant Reformation. I distinctly remember sitting in my Introduction to Christian Education class at Wheaton College and hearing about someone named Augustine. He seemed pretty important to my faith, but at the age of eighteen, I was just learning about him for the very first time. I know from conversation with others coming out of an independent, Evangelical background that my gap in knowledge about the history of Christianity is not unique. This needs to change. Our history matters to today’s generation and the ones to come. In our present pandemic, articles are circulating about the history of epidemics and the Church’s past responses. This is one illustration of the value of the history of Christianity.
While the list of reasons to know your history could go on and on, there are three compelling arguments I’d like to make. First, we need to know from where we come. As humans, we look at our DNA and trace our family histories to understand how the individuals that we are today came to live, look, and be. The church is no different. We cannot fully appreciate who we are unless we know who came before us. Second, we are part of the Body of Christ, and to fully embrace the Church, we must extend beyond our immediate congregation to around the world and across time. We miss out on knowing the fullness of Christ when we ignore the Church of the past. Third, we learn from those who have wrestled with the same problems and questions we do today. There are many answers from the past that still resonate with our present struggles and questions. Take for example how many times Martin Luther has been quoted on his handling of the epidemic in his own time now in our day of COVID-19.
I do not expect that all church-goers be experts in the history of Christianity, but my hope is that Christians will have some thread of knowledge connecting them from the first century to the twenty-first. It can be overwhelming to know where to even start. There are many excellent works out there like Justo Gonzalez’s The Story of Christianity for the more avid readers who are not intimidated by the size of the tome. However, one of the works, which is short and readable and yet written by one of the most respected scholars in the field, Dr. Mark Noll, is Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Not only is it a brief book that covers the breadth of the Church across time, but it presents a scaffolding to understand the progression of history and theology that has led to the present day. If you are looking for a new book to read during these quarantined days, order a copy or borrow it from the library to begin furthering your knowledge of the “great cloud of witnesses” which has gone before us.
By Pin Pricks 