Why Christians Should Study Church History (a brief argument)

When it comes to church history, people’s perspectives are largely shaped by the tradition they grew up in. While some traditions – like the Catholic or Orthodox church – emphasize the history of the Saints and Creeds, other traditions – like certain protestant strands – have been taught to be suspicious of the Saints and anything that comes from ancient tradition. This protestant skepticism towards church history combined with the protestant emphasis on missions means that new Christians all over the world are being taught how to be disciples of Christ without any knowledge of how disciples of Christ have thought and lived for the past two thousand years. It does not take more than a brief skim through church history to easily establish that the history of Christianity is not only relevant but vital for any disciple today. 

After the generation of the Apostles died, the Church no longer had direct friends of Jesus to turn to whenever they had a theological dispute. Therefore, the next few generations of the Church were largely dedicated to establishing right doctrine and guarding against heresy. Unfortunately, the modern American church has lost the urgency of the early church to establish the correct belief. In part this makes sense, the early church had to make its own systematic theology from the ground up, so of course they would be intentional to do it well. But after two thousand years, some strands of the church have become relaxed in what it allows to be considered Orthodox. 

Thus, knowledge of the early church is vital to protect key doctrinal issues (such as the Trinity and the nature of Christ) against casual heresy. Gnosticism, one of the most common heresies of the early church, is embedded in many of the hymns and phrases Western Christians use on a day-to-day basis. Gnosticism holds a highly dualistic worldview where the spiritual is good and anything material is considered evil (McNutt and McNutt, page 16). In contrast to the God of the Bible who made the physical world “very good” and walked on earth as a physical man, Gnosticism holds that a good and perfect God could not have created the wicked physical world or become a real physical person, thus denying two major facets of Orthodox Christian belief (McNutt and McNutt, page 16). Early church thinkers, such as Irenaeus of Lyons, recognized the threat of such a twisted belief and dedicated their lives to dispelling the heresy (McNutt and McNutt, page 17). 

Despite the historic agreement of the Church that Gnosticism is heretical, it has slipped into Western belief. In Sunday school, children are taught that when we die our bad bodies finally lose their power over us and we are disembodied spiritual beings that can finally go to the good spiritual realm (heaven). Not only is this not found anywhere in the Bible, it is eerily similar to the Gnostic teachings of the early church. Christian disciples need to be aware of early church history so they recognize heresies and cling to orthodox doctrine.

After the age of the early Church, Christianity grew roots in the Roman Empire. However, not everyone was thrilled about this transition. Thus, some turned to Monasticism to show their devotion to Christ (Gonzalez, vol 1, 158). Protestant Christians, in particular, would greatly benefit from learning about the history of Christian monasticism. For one thing, the average protestant might not even truly understand what the monastic movement was. Western media often portrays monks as isolated hermits who ramble on about chakras and have no affiliation with the Christian God. And while perhaps there were some isolated monks among the Christian community (such as Simeon Stylites), Christian monasticism is so much more than that (Noll, page 74). 

Monastic communities were places where women could pursue deep spirituality in a time when they might not have had the opportunity to do so otherwise (Noll, page 78). Also, in contrast to protestant culture today, monasticism taught that singleness and celibacy were a way of showing devotion and honor to God (Noll, page 73). The Western church has embraced a culture where marriage is often expressed as the highest (and even only) way to honor God with your life. Combine this marriage culture with the rising number of same-sex attracted Christians, and the culture of the West has no place for believers who are same-sex attracted. Therefore, even without fully embracing a traditional monastic practice, Christian disciples would benefit from greater awareness of the monastic movement. There are many men and women in the Church who either do not feel called to get married or cannot for a reason outside of their control, and the monastic movement would give them a whole cloud of witnesses that have paved the way for how to honor God and find deep fulfilling community in the midst of lifelong singleness. 

If there is any period of time that someone would expect Protestants to know about, it is the protestant reformation. Yet, it is not surprising to find dedicated protestants who could tell you more about the protestant reformation than that Luther was involved and maybe Calvin was there, too. This lack of knowledge surrounding the history of the protestant reformation has led to the same doctrinal blindness that the Reformation was pushing back against. Though Luther was certainly advocating for a different view of Scripture’s place in the church, he was also challenging the beliefs surrounding the sacraments that the church had inherited from tradition, instead of grounding in Scripture (Noll 132). How ironic that the protestant church today finds itself in a place where most congregants base their views of the sacraments and salvation from the inherited protestant tradition. 

Thus, Christian disciples would certainly benefit from knowing about the conversations surrounding the sacraments that were happening during the protestant reformation. For example, not only did Luther disagree with the way Catholics viewed transubstantiation, he also disagreed with what could be considered a sacrament at all (Noll, page 138). While the Catholic church held to seven sacraments, Luther argued for communion, baptism, “and perhaps confession” (Noll, page 138). Furthermore, modern disciples not learned in church history would likely be surprised to know that Luther, who we consider to be the father of Protestantism, did not hold to the symbolic view of communion that many protestants hold to today. Instead, Luther held that “Christ was truly present in the Supper,” and it was a colleague Ulrich Zwingli who argued for a symbolic view (Noll, page 139). This is not to say that modern disciples have to take one stance or another on the nature of the Eucharist. However, it would be formative for disciples to know why there are so many ways of viewing the nature of communion since there is probably a little truth to be discovered in them all. 

As far as the more recent past in Western Christian history, modern disciples could greatly benefit from a study surrounding the missionary movements of the modern age – good and bad. Christians should be aware of and learn from the tragedies that have been suffered at the hands of missionaries – such as mixing evangelism with colonization or even slavery (Cooper, page 202). Yet, there are also positive examples of missionaries that modern disciples could learn from, such as Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson, “who thought missionary activity should lead directly, intentionally, and swiftly to Indigenous leadership of the new Christian churches” (Noll, page 257). 

The knowledge of past atrocities committed in the name of Christ should lead modern disciples to humility, sorrow, and reflection where they might also inadvertently be twisting justice and calling it “mission.” At the same time, modern Christians should be encouraged and inspired by seeing the ways that brothers and sisters in Christ from times past pursued justice and dignity for those to whom it was not often extended. 

Learning about other cultures encountered in missionary endeavors is also a pertinent part of being a Christian disciple. For example, Western believers could greatly benefit from learning about the African concept of ubuntu. According to Douglas Jacobsen, ubuntu “refers to the interconnectedness of all people,” and “describes all human beings as dependent on and responsible for one another” (Jacobsen, page 62). Those familiar with the writings of Paul might immediately think of a similar concept that Paul describes: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12). Despite the fact that interconnectedness is deeply a part of what it means to be Christian, that part of Paul’s theology is ignored in the practicality of Western Christian life. Thus, the Western church would richly benefit from sharpening by African brothers and sisters. 

Modern disciples could learn not only from their brothers and sisters in Africa but also in Asia. According to Jacobsen, “Christians are more likely to be persecuted or have their religious liberties restricted [in Asia] than anywhere else in the world” (Jacobsen, page 168-9). Of course, this varies based on the region, but there are many countries in Asia where conversion to Christianity can mean harassment, jail time, or even death (Jacobsen, page 169). In John 15, Jesus promises his disciples persecution, and in Matthew 5 he called those who are persecuted for righteousness sake “blessed.” Thus, Christians in non-persecuted nations perhaps should be learning from those brothers and sisters who are truly and profoundly experiencing the same kind of persecution Jesus promised. In the end of days, they will be the ones about which it was said, “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). 

To conclude, there are Christians in the world right now who do not have the luxury of knowing about the past. There are people who desperately love Jesus who do not have a history of the Cappadocian fathers, the early church mothers, the reformations, and theological debates, even translated into a language they can understand. It seems to be a great insult to them and a slight to our own faith, for those of us who readily have a world of sources at our fingertips to decide that the very history of people following our Lord is not worth our time. 

Bibliography 

Cooper, Derek. Introduction to World Christian History. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Academic, an imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2016. 

González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. Vol. 1, HarperOne, 2010. 

Jacobsen, Douglas G. Global Gospel: An Introduction to Christianity on Five Continents. Baker Academic, 2015. 

McNutt, Jennifer Powell, and David W. McNutt. Know the Theologians. Zondervan, 2024. 

Noll, Mark. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Baker Academic, 2012.