From ReformedWord
Church History is the record of salvation history, especially after the time of the New Testament. After the Apostolic Age and the Sub-Apostolic Age came the time of the Church Fathers, the Patristic Period. This lead to the schism East/West and the Roman church's dominance. With Christianity as the state religion, Christendom was born. Intellectuals came to be expected to espouse Christian values, and so the Scholastic Era began. The Middle Ages we a time when incremental heresies crept into the Church. Dissenters were violently put down, but were numerous enough to call the time the Pre-Reformation. Unknowingly, Martin Luther began the Reformation, which continued in debate and war. The Enlightenment and Great Awakening followed. Again, slow declined proceeded, until matters were brought to a head in the twentieth century and Christendom ended. Now a great demographic change sweeps slowly over the world, inexorably altering the face of the Church in the world.
| This is a page is in the Brainstorming stage. This means we are collecting ideas and facts. We have not yet isolated the important themes nor the overarching moral lesson. You are strongly encouraged to edit it! You can:
Remember, right now we're trying to accumulate knowledge and find the better half of wisdom. Please help us determine the Godly, moral focus of the article on the talk page: it's the crucial component! |
"The concern of the text is not to prove the history, but rather to impress the reader with the theological significance of these acts. History and theology are closely connected in the biblical text. Indeed, biblical history is not objective history — that is, uninterpreted — history, but rather history narrated with a divine purpose. For this reason, commentators have referred to biblical history as 'theological history,' 'prophetic history,' and 'covenantal history.' The last is especially appealing, because covenant is the primary divine-human relationship metaphor used in the Bible, and the Bible charts this relationship from the time of Adam and Eve (Genesis) through the time of consumation (Revelation)."[1]
"Only that account is 'history' that attempts to impose some coherence on the past"[2]
"all history is of necessity 'perspectival,' even 'subjective,' in the sense that it owes its shape to it author's activity in selecting and communicating material"[3]
- Adam
- Eve
- Fall
- Creation
- Antedeluvian
- Original Sin