Church History and Faith connection

The changed constituency of the Western academy has also had a radical effect upon the teaching of Church history

In a mono-confessional context Church history is typically interpreted in the light of particular denominations. Anglicans pay particular attention to Anglican divines such as Hooker, Presbyterians to Knox, Methodists to Wesley, and so forth. Church history is thus focused upon those people or events considered most significant to that faith community. More polemically, this focus is sometimes portrayed as the path of “orthodoxy” to be contrasted with the errors propagated by other Christians. As a result Church history in such mono-confessional contexts constitutes an important feature of identity, reinforcing boundaries between faithful Christians and others.

Yet in a pluralist environment Church history becomes more complicated. It is not,of course, value free

Particular people and events are still selected for discussion and others are not; those selected are given different amounts of time and consideration; and the perspectives of different historians inevitably shape their interpretations of the significance of these people and events. Once it is conceded that selection and interpretation are inextricably involved in any study of history, and especially in any study of Church history, then absolute detachment is no more possible (or perhaps even desirable) here than it is in religious studies. Even within the pluralist context of the Western
academy today, faith, or rather a multiplicity of faiths, is still a part of Church history.

However, the multiplicity of faiths involved in Church history today does entail a greater attention than in the past to divergent branches of Christianity set in a variety of cultures.

Any serious study of Church history within the modern academy pays
attention not simply to Western Christianity but also to Christianity in non-Western countries.
The history of Christian missions, for example, is not simply relegated to a separate discipline of mission studies, but is part of a global account of Christian history.
 In addition, sociological studies of new religious movements, cults and sects in both Western and non Western countries form a part of this global account. And, within accounts of early Christianity, previously discredited movements such as that of Gnosticism are treated with a new seriousness. Christian history is depicted less as the history of the successful “orthodox” and more as a varied and pluriform family of interrelated movements arising from the New Testament.