Christian History

It's been a while since I've written a book review.  This is probably because with a baby, garden on top of everything happening at church, I haven't had time to read a whole lot.  What I have been reading is a Quicknotes version of Church History.  I decided it was about time I refreshed my memory of some of the things that are a part of our history as the church.  This isn't really a review of the book itself.  The authors/editors do a good job of giving a brief overview of primarily Western church history.  It offers a few value judgements of history, some of which I agree with and others I don't.

The history moves from the early, primitive church in Acts through the Roman persecution, theological developments, Middle Ages, into the Reformation, Great Awakening and finally ends with the 20th Century development of "Evangelical" Christianity in the West and also offers a look and guidance for the church in the 21st Century.

What comes to life is a twisted history in the institutional church.  The church begins as a movement of people trying to live as members of the kingdom of God.  They were persecuted by Roman and Jewish authorities at the start.  With Constantine, all of that subversive, underground, Christ-following movement becomes powerful.  Church and State become united and remain that way until the secularization of the Enlightenment begins.  There are major developments that occur in the theology of the church as it develops.

One thing I found interesting was the development of the Reformation.  Martin Luther is often credited as starting the Reformation.  This review of history also points out those that paved the way for the Reformation such as John Wycliffe and Jan Hus.  It also talks about the developing of state churches following Luther, Calvin or Catholicism.  The book also goes into some detail of the Radical Reformers which developed Anabaptism.  Anabaptists suffered persecution  under the state churches whether Lutheran, Calvinist or Catholic.

The book concludes by looking at the effects of the Enlightenment on the church.  It then  talks about the evangelistic movements of the 19th and 20th Century.  They also mention that eventually Evangelical Christianity began to divorce the social and spiritual Gospel.  For centuries the faithful church had sought ways to reform societies ills while also seeking to bring people to Christ.  They were one in the same.  During the 20th Century the church began to split the gospel.

Two things become clear by looking at church history.  The first is that the church with worldly power is really no different than the world with worldly power.  The only difference is that the church with worldly power assumes God has ordained it.  When the church identifies with the the outcasts and speaks prophetically to centers of power, then it is faithful and grows.  The church and state relationship  does not work.  The second thing that becomes clear is that the church has one Gospel to live out.  Jesus fed people with bread and told them he was the bread of life.  He cared for people's physical and spiritual needs.  One Gospel.  Jesus has come to change the world.  Physical or Spiritual.  Everything comes under Jesus.  The Church, then, must do likewise.  We look for ways to help the disenfranchised, poor and outcasts while reconciling people to Christ.  When the church tries to use the power of the state or fragments the Gospel it begins to turn away from faithfully following Christ.