Jackson Gordon

How to Study Church History (And Why Every Christian Should)

12 min read

How to Study Church History (And Why Every Christian Should)

Introduction (0:00)

  • This video provides advice on how Christians can learn about church history. (0:00)
  • Studying church history is valuable for every Christian, but there is the common challenge of not knowing where to begin and the cultural “ache for rootedness.” (0:05, 0:47)
  • It’s particularly important in the digital age to be able to distinguish between legitimate scholarship and pseudo-scholarship. (1:19)
  • This video is based on insights from Ortlund’s historiography (the methods used in studying history.) seminar during his doctoral work in historical theology, which was based on Muller and Bradley’s Church History: An Introduction to Research, Reference Works, and Methods. (1:42)

Why Study Church History? (3:01)

  • Many Evangelical Protestants unfortunately don’t value church history as much as they should, sometimes thinking it’s not valuable because it’s not infallible. However, “something can be deeply valuable even if it’s not infallible”. (3:06)
  • Ortlund book on the value of studying church history from a Protestant perspective. Theological Retrieval for Evangelicals: Why We Need Our Past to Have a Future (3:23)

Reason 1: Christianity is a Historical Religion (3:53)

  • Christianity is unique in its emphasis on history, viewing it as progressing towards something, unlike cyclical views in some other religions. (3:53)
  • Basic Christian doctrines are rooted in specific historical events (e.g., mentioning Pontius Pilate in the Apostle’s Creed). (4:18)
  • The Bible itself is largely historical narrative (roughly 75%). Non-narrative parts are tightly connected to the narrative backbone (Exodus, Exile, New Testament events). (4:38)
  • The abrupt ending of the book of Acts implies that the story continues. (5:30)
  • Studying church history means studying God’s work in history. (6:00)

Reason 2: Our Humanity (6:25)

  • Humans are “tradition creatures,” deeply influenced by the past and inherited assumptions. (6:25)
  • As the Arab proverb says, “men resemble their times more than their fathers.” We are profoundly shaped by our time and culture. (6:48)
  • The alternative to conscious engagement with the past is being unconsciously shaped by it (e.g., assuming current worship styles are not a tradition). (6:58)
  • It is healthy and beneficial to study history to understand these influences. (7:28)

Reason 3: The Church (7:34)

  • Studying church history is studying our spiritual family – brothers and sisters from different times. (7:34)
  • Rejecting Christians from other times is analogous to rejecting Christians from other places – a prejudice of time, not place. (7:47)
  • We stand on the shoulders of past Christians, benefiting from their faith, courage (like the martyrs), and work. (8:26)

Reason 4: Learning and Challenging Blind Spots (9:03)

  • History helps expose and challenge the blind spots of our current moment. (9:10)
  • C.S. Lewis’s quote from “On the Reading of Old Books” highlights that every age has its strengths and weaknesses, and old books help correct our period’s characteristic mistakes. (9:15)
  • Old books offer truths or errors different from our own, providing a “clean seabreeze of the centuries.” (9:46)
  • Edward Carr, in What is History, quotes another historian: “History must be our deliverer… from the tyranny of environment and the pressure of the air we breathe.” (10:17)
  • This is especially true for those in the modern West, which is a historically eccentric time with unique assumptions. (10:42)
  • Personal Example: Studying Anselm of Canterbury showed Ortlund that Anselm wasn’t just answering modern questions differently but asking different questions entirely (e.g., “How can God forgive sins?” vs. “How can God judge?”). Anselm’s God-centeredness is a healthy corrective to modern ways of thinking. (11:09)
  • Pre-modern voices may not always be right, but they challenge our presuppositions. (12:05)

Reason 5: It’s Interesting (12:11)

  • History is simply fascinating. (12:11)
  • Marc Bloch’s The Historians Craft emphasizes history’s vital relationship to the present and its interconnectedness (“the only true history is a universal history”). (12:17)
  • Bloch also states that even without other uses, history’s entertainment value remains. (13:10)
  • “Truth is Stranger Than Fiction.” History contains intricate, complicated, and counterintuitive details. (13:23)
  • Example: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson dying on the same day, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. (13:50)
  • The “butterfly effect” or contingency: Tiny details can affect much larger outcomes (e.g., weather in World War II). (14:21)
  • Personal Example: Reading a Lincoln biography revealed how improbable the preservation of the Union and abolition of slavery seemed at the time. (14:57)
  • Studying church history is just incredibly interesting. (15:28)

How to Study Church History (15:34)

  • Advice for lay persons and those seeking academic engagement. (15:34)
  • Four steps:

Step 1: Cultivate Curiosity (16:04)

  • Start by identifying a topic you are genuinely curious about, not just what you think you should study. (16:04)
  • Curiosity is a powerful stimulus for sustaining the hard work required for deep study. (16:16)
  • Albert Einstein: “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” (16:29)
  • An article in the Harvard Business Review explores how curiosity quotient (CQ) impacts learning. (16:34)
  • Curiosity can be cultivated (avoid spending all time on the internet). (16:55)
  • Reading habits advice: While specific practices (like taking notes in books, getting up early) are helpful, cultivating curiosity is primary. (17:02)
  • If you’re curious and enthusiastic, it won’t feel like work, which is a powerful tool for productivity. (18:19)
  • Ask yourself: What do I really want to know? What am I fascinated by? (18:37)

Step 2: Narrow Your Interests (18:54)

  • Learning starts broad and then becomes more granular and specific. (18:54)
  • This is necessary because church history is vast and can feel overwhelming. (19:05)
  • You need to break things down and hone in on where you’re interested. (20:09)
  • Basic ways to break it down:
    • Time Period: (Most basic)
      • Patristic Era (Fathers): ~1st to 5th/6th/7th century. (21:04)
      • Medieval Period: ~500 to 1500 (very broadly). (21:16)
      • Reformation: 16th century onwards. (21:29)
      • Modern: From Descartes onwards (roughly). (21:34)
    • Location: (21:21)
    • Aspect of History: Social history, intellectual history, etc. (21:27)
    • Sub-disciplines: Historical theology (history of doctrine, history of Christian thought). (21:33)
  • You need to get more specific than just “interested in the church fathers.” Are you interested in the Apostolic Fathers? (21:46)
  • Interest in recent church history (20th century) is also valid and fascinating. (22:05)
  • Personal Passion: The Medieval Era, often neglected and caricatured as “Dark Ages.” (22:16)
  • Metaphor: Like moving to a new region (e.g., Washington D.C., California) and realizing the generic broad impressions from a distance give way to distinct particularities as you get closer. (24:28)
  • The more granular you get, the more you see the distinctness of each era. (25:23)
  • As you read, hone your interest more specifically. (25:29)

Step 3: Dive Deep into Primary Resources (25:41)

  • This is the most important step. (25:41)
  • Distinction: Primary resources (from the time studied: texts, artifacts) vs. Secondary resources (writings about the time/topic). (25:47)
  • People often focus on secondary sources because they feel easier, but they miss out. (26:12)
  • Main Encouragement: Don’t be intimidated by primary resources. They are often easier and more enjoyable/profitable than much secondary literature. (26:19)
  • C.S. Lewis quote (from “On the Reading of Old Books”): “The simplest student will be able to understand, if not all, yet a very great deal of what Plato said; but hardly anyone can understand some modern books on Platonism. It has always therefore been one of my main endeavors as a teacher to persuade the young that first-hand knowledge is not only more worth acquiring than second-hand knowledge, but is usually much easier and more delightful to acquire.” (26:35)
  • Older texts are often shorter, more vivid, honest, sometimes written under duress (Boethius’s Consolation of Philosophy), or intended for teaching (Aquinas’s Summa Theologica). (27:19)
  • Encouragement: Take one text or one area and do a deep dive. Don’t worry about comprehensive scope initially. (27:58)
  • Preaching Principle: “The particular is the universal.” A concrete example illustrates an abstract principle. (28:16)
  • Similarly, drilling into one area often opens up understanding of a whole era. (28:34)
  • Example: Studying Augustine reveals much about the Roman Empire, early church government, and theology. (28:51)
  • Example: George Marsden’s book on Fuller Seminary provides a window into 20th-century American evangelicalism. (29:07)
  • Example: David McCullough’s biography of John Adams opens up the American experiment and democracy. (29:41)
  • Metaphor: Joseph Ellis (quoting another historian in Founding Brothers) describes studying the past like lowering a bucket into the ocean to bring up a “characteristic specimen.” (29:56)

“It is not by the direct method of a scrupulous narration that the explorer of the past can hope to depict that singular epoch. If he is wise, he will adopt a subtler strategy. He will attack his subject in unexpected places; he will fall upon the flank, or the rear; he will shoot a sudden, revealing searchlight into obscure recesses, hither-to undivined… He will row out over that great ocean of material, and lower down into it, here and there, a little bucket, which will bring up to the light of day some characteristic specimen, from those far depths, to be examined with a careful curiosity.”

Step 4: Engage Secondary Literature (32:09)

  • This is harder and requires knowing a few things about academic research. (32:16)

  • Aside on Academic Scholarship: (32:21)

    • Some are negative about scholarship, but it is useful. (32:21)
    • Downsides: Over-specialization (e.g., splitting theology and philosophy today), liberal skeptical bias. (32:35)
    • Engage academic work critically, but many who dismiss it still rely on it, often unconsciously reinventing basic research methods. (33:10)
    • Dismissals are often too wholesale. We need scholarship. (33:29)
    • Access to primary sources (critical editions, translations) is often a result of scholarship. (33:39)
    • Reading scholarship is helpful. It should be a dialectical relationship between primary and secondary sources. (34:04)
    • Secondary literature helps you see gaps and things you might miss otherwise. (34:21)

  • To do academic research beyond Google, you need to engage academic writing. (34:40)

  • Three main genres of academic writing to engage:

    1. Dissertations (long, original research, PhD final step). (34:52)
    2. Monographs (academic books, often published dissertations). (35:36)
    3. Scholarly articles/Essays (shorter, in academic journals or scholarly books). (35:39)

  • Know the leading journals in your field. (35:47)

  • Look for journals and books published by presses that are peer-reviewed. (35:53)

    • What is Peer Review? Anonymous evaluation by other experts in the field before publication. (36:00)
    • Peer review isn’t perfect or universal but is still useful and important to be aware of. (36:12)

  • Often starting with dissertations is helpful because they are specialized and sometimes neglected. (36:32)

  • Locating Scholarly Writings: You need databases beyond Google/Yahoo. (36:45)

    • ATLA Religion Database: Index of academic journal articles and other religion writings. Standard for church history. Good for checking journal credibility (ATLA indexed?). Requires library access. (https://www.atla.com/research-tool/atla-religion-database/) (36:57)
    • JSTOR: Good complimentary resource. (https://www.jstor.org/) (37:50)
    • Library Databases: University or seminary libraries (e.g., https://library.princeton.edu/). Often require institutional access but show what’s available. (37:57)
    • For dissertations:
    • Specific Church History Resources (especially for older texts):
      • Patrologia Latina (PL): Digitized collection of Latin texts (Tullian to Innocent III). Searchable by word. Incredible resource, requires access. (38:45)
      • Patrologia Graeca (PG): Digitized collection of Greek texts (early church fathers). (38:45)
      • These collections are from a 19th-century compilation by Jacques Paul Migne. (38:45)

  • Academic Publishing Comments: (39:44)

    • Publishing takes a lot of work and is hard to break into. Don’t do it just for ego. (39:50)
    • Goal: Find a gap or neglected area and make a unique contribution to knowledge, not just write something popular. (40:26)
    • Think of it as joining a conversation that’s already happening. (40:46)
    • Crucial: Distinguish material new to you from material new in the field. (40:59)
    • There’s often a disconnect between popular knowledge and scholarly work that needs to be bridged. (41:13)
    • Best Tip: If you want to publish in a journal, read that journal to understand the conversation, goals, and culture. (41:42)
    • Peer review can be quirky and involve personalities. (42:11)
    • James Bradley and Richard Mueller’s book advises taking rejections in stride and trying other publishers. (42:17)
    • Rejection doesn’t mean your work is bad (e.g., Gone With the Wind, C.S. Lewis’s Out of the Silent Planet were initially rejected). Persevere. (42:29)
    • Ortlund has a blog post on Tips on Writing and Getting Published. (43:01)

Summing Up (43:13)

  • How-to Recap:
    1. Find something you’re curious about.
    2. Stare at it/read about it enough to hone/narrow your focus and find a unique angle.
    3. Do a deep dive into the primary sources.
    4. Engage the secondary literature (alongside step 3) to see what’s been said and identify gaps.
  • From there, it’s hard work and thought. (43:33)
  • Last Tip: Talk to other scholars or people interested in the topic. Stray conversations can be very influential. (43:39)

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