Podcast: Why Study Church History? Pt. 1
"Church history is the study of the work of the Holy Spirit in human history. That is not boring or irrelevant; it's exciting and rewarding."
History is not only human history or church history — it’s the story of God Himself. If you’re going to study the work of God, you can’t avoid history, because God enters into human history, from start to finish.
However, we also must know that there are going to be some glorious moments where we see what God is doing, but there will also be very disturbing moments. Church — and biblical — history is full of lots of ups and downs, potholes, and broken people. Even so, to study church history is more than to study groups of human beings who are doing it well or not doing it well. It is to study the works of God through human beings.
In this podcast, we'll focus on some key thoughts from Justo Gonzales, author of The Story of Christianity, a core book we'll be using for the All Saints course on Church History.
Quoted
“…the history of the church, while showing all the characteristics of human history, is much more than the history of an institution or of a movement. It is a history of the deeds of the Spirit in and through the men and women who have gone before in the faith.”
—Justo Gonzales, The Story of Christianity
Learn More
Find out more about the resources, authors, or ideas in this episode:
- Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day. Prince Press, 1999.
- Introduction. Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: The Early Church to the Present Day. Prince Press, 1999. [Introduction.pdf]
Some of the links mentioned are “affiliate links,” meaning that All Saints will receive a small commission if you purchase an item through the link.