Dear ______:
I’m glad to hear that you are at least looking for some “friends” from your readings in Church history. I think that is one good reason to study Church history, whether you are in seminary or not — but it isn’t by any means the only reason.
One key thing you gain from a study of history is a better knowledge of yourself as a Christian, and ourselves as the Church. Knowing the Church’s story can help you make wise decisions individually or in leadership.
Maybe that seems like too bold a claim. Here’s why I make it: One of the biblical understandings for the people of God is that we are a family. Studying Church history is like going to a family therapist.
Family Therapy
If you ever decide to see a therapist, you’ll probably start out by telling stories. You’ll tell your own personal stories. But your therapist will tug on the loose ends and you’ll end up telling stories about the family you grew up with. Eventually one thing will lead to another and you’ll be telling the family lore, the influential people whom you never actually met.
Some of those family stories are role models and mentors: the sainted grandmother you always wanted to be like.
Some of those stories will be cautionary tales: the alcoholic parent who treated you so badly.
Some of the stories will just be a little uncomfortable: like that certain branch of the family tree that nobody wants to talk about.
But all of the stories matter, because all of those people have shaped you.
- Keep the stories hidden and they rule you in the most awkward and surprising ways.
- Get the stories out there and you can think about what you want to do with them.
That’s the path to greater health.
Knowing the Church’s Story
That is true in the Church as well.
The history of the Church is not all good. That would be nostalgia.
There have been some horrible things done by Christians. Honesty requires acknowledging them — repenting where necessary, and choosing a better path.
The history of the Church is not all bad either. That would be denial.
At the very least, everyone who follows Christ today can thank a chain of witnesses, known or unknown, back through the generations. Somebody helped you hear the gospel. That’s a piece of history.
There are also those remarkable servants of the poor, those brilliant interpreters of Scripture, those effective spiritual guides, and so many other categories — all those friends from the past I wrote to you about. We get to learn from them. That’s a piece of history too.
And there are those family fights — those great controversies and theological struggles you are learning about in class. Issues that seem distant and abstract today (say the Trinity or the Natures of Christ) were wrestled and died over. The fights, and the issues at stake, are part of the way history shapes us.
Honor Your Father and Mother
And, as the late great Church historian David Steinmetz liked to point out, this is part of obeying the command to honor your father and mother (Exodus 20:12 — it’s one of the Big Ten).
You do not have to like everything about your parents or ancestors. You just have to treat them with respect and learn what you can from them.
And as my long-ago pastor Bruce Larson would point out, sometimes you best honor them by growing up and living differently.
So as you study for that exam, remember that you are in Christian family therapy. Learn the stories — they are your family, and they make you who you are.
I pray it equips you to be a wise disciple and a wise leader.
Blessings,
Gary
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I would make an even bolder claim and say that remembering the saints – our ancestors – is a part of our salvation, a part of our union with Christ, and, therefore, Eucharistic!
I think a common prayer in the Orthodox Church sums it up nicely:
“Remembering our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.”
The key is: “Remembering…the Theotokos…with all the saints (pause), let us commit ourselves…to Christ.”
That is, in our remembering the saints, we are asking for union with Christ.
We all know that Christ, at the Last Supper, said: “Do this in remembrance of me.” But Christ isn’t just the man who lived 2,000 years ago. Christ is also us. When we were baptized, we “put on Christ” as the Orthodox hymn and the Church Fathers say. In other words, we become the Body of Christ. So, a remembrance of Christ is also a remembrance of our ancestors, the saints.
As a part of the Body of Christ, there is no difference between us, Christ, and our ancestors (the saints). We are all one. We become, by grace, what God is by nature.
Look at the way the (Orthodox) Church structured the Eucharistic prayers.
There is the Anaphora: First we remember the words of the Last Supper, and then we offer up (anaphora) our gifts (lives) to God. “Offering to You, Your own of Your own, in all and for all, we praise You, we bless You, we give thanks to You, and we pray to You, Lord our God.”
Then there’s the Epiclesis: The calling down of the Holy Spirit to transform our gifts (our lives). “Send down Your Holy Spirit upon us and upon the gifts here presented And make this bread the precious Body of Your Christ. And that which is in this cup, the precious Blood of Your Christ.” In other words, let us be transformed, saved, deified!
And then, there’s the remembrance of us and all the departed saints. “So that they may be for those who partake of them for vigilance of soul, remission of sins, communion of Your Holy Spirit, fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven, boldness before You, not for judgment or condemnation. Again, we offer You this spiritual worship for those who have reposed in the faith: forefathers, fathers, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, preachers, evangelists, martyrs, confessors, ascetics, and for every righteous spirit made perfect in faith. Especially for our most holy, pure, blessed, and glorious Lady, the Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary. For Saint John the prophet, forerunner, and baptist; for the holy, glorious, and most praiseworthy apostles; for Saint(s) (Name), whose memory we celebrate; and for all Your saints, through whose supplications, visit us, O God. And remember all who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection to life eternal (here the Priest commemorates by name those departed whom he wishes). Grant them rest, O our God, where the light of Your countenance keeps watch. Again we beseech You, Lord, remember all Orthodox bishops who rightly teach the word of Your truth, the presbyterate, the diaconate in Christ, and every priestly and monastic order. Again we offer You this spiritual worship for the whole world, for the holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, and for those living pure and reverent lives. For civil authorities and our armed forces, grant that they may govern in peace, Lord, so that in their tranquility we, too, may live calm and serene lives, in all piety and virtue. Among the first remember, Lord, our Archbishop (Name); grant him to Your holy churches in peace, safety, honor, and health, unto length of days, rightly teaching the word of Your truth. And remember those whom each one of us has in mind, and all the people.”
The Eucharist is both the remembrance of the Last Supper, but it’s also offering of our gifts, our lives, the entire world, so that all can be transformed into the Body of Christ. This offering is the remembrance of the saints.
In other words, the remembering of our ancestors isn’t just obeying one of the Ten Commandments – honor your father and mother – but also obeying the command of Christ to remember him, both the incarnate man and the Body of Christ.
In other words, every Eucharist is a family reunion, and remembering the saints is Eucharistic.
Thanks Fr. Dustin:
You make a good, though very different, point on the value of studying our history. I suspect that most Protestant readers would find you are speaking a foreign language.
I’m trying to make incremental connections from what is known — and this won’t be my only post on the topic…
Blessings,
Gary
Thanks, Gary. Great post, as always. I had two thoughts:
First, when you mentioned honoring father and mother (and knowing the church’s stories), I have to admit that I immediately thought of the quote attributed to St. Augustine: “The church is a whore. And she’s my mother.” 😉 Warts and all, as they say….
Secondly, I vividly remember sitting in Stuart Hall during a CH01 lecture (I don’t remember whether it was McKee or Moorhead – probably the former). She was reviewing the Arian controversy and the depth of the fissures it precipitated in the church. Suddenly I was struck by the realization that “the Church has ALWAYS been fighting with itself!” (Mind you, I did not grow up with any real understanding of The Church; I had been a Presbyterian at that point for less than a decade, and had never [thank God] been part of a congregation that experienced any public conflict.) This was right at the time that the letter concerning homosexuality went out over the signatures of a number of people who identified themselves in relation to Princeton Seminary. In other words, this was my first “rodeo” with respect to conflict in this Body that I had only recently come to know, love, adore and revere. I was quite unnerved by the nascent conversation concerning homosexuality, and its future implications for the Church. But at that moment in the CH01 lecture, the Spirit shone a light of understanding into my heart. I realized that this was NOT a unique (and, therefore, uniquely threatening) development. Rather, it was suddenly clear that this was just one in a long, long history of church conflicts, and I had no reason to doubt that the Spirit Who had led Christ’s Church through all the previous conflicts would lead us through this one.
Thanks again for your witness —
in Him, Brint
Thanks Brint, for your affirming words!
That sounds like an excellent revelatory moment in CH01. The class was a life-changer for me.
Glad you qualify the attribution to Augustine of that quotation. It is very dubious. It just doesn’t sound like Augustine to me — I’ve read a lot of him, though only a small slice of what he wrote of course. And it seems to come with qualification in many online citations. If you ever see an actual text cited for it, let me know. (Here’s a blog post by a popular author who doubts it and seems to have found a very similar saying by Dorothy Day! His link to the source is broken, but this should take you to the blog post: http://experimentaltheology.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-church-is-whore-but-she-is-our.html
Once upon a time I wrote this piece counseling patience with Church conflict, noting how long it took to settle the more substantive issues of Arianism and Donatism: http://www.theologymatters.com/SepOct01.PDF
Your introduction to church history, warts and all, made me think back to a lecture i attended in Arizona. A guest lecturer to our RV park was speaking on Arizona history. He was a professional lecturer and brought his own slides! An old joke about an expert is someone who is more than 50 miles from your home and has his own Kodak slide show. One of his lectures was on the history of prostitution in the West. He did the origins of it from English Victorian values carried over into the wild west Women had little value and when their husbands died, had little opportunity to work EXCEPT in prostitution. It was interesting of course but my mind turned to WHERE IS THE CHURCH IN ALL THIS? He never mentioned the church in ANY context. It bothered me. Unfortunately, I was unable to speak with him afterwards. Where was the church in the west. Does anyone know?
Thanks Joe.
The Church was there, as quickly as possible and sometimes first among people of European ancestry, but of course never is able to quite conquer all the problems.
Here’s a link to one of several books on Sheldon Jackson’s pioneer Presbyterian missionary work across the west and up to Alaska. http://amzn.to/1sg0N29
Here’s another to a fine study of a cadre of female Presbyterian missionaries who worked among the Nez Perce and I think the Lakota peoples: http://amzn.to/1X1lyfs
(Those are affiliate links, by the way.)
Other denominations would have stories to tell