How Do We Approach/Write Church History?

On our first night of Church History class, even before we did the typical first night activities like looking at the syllabus, we broke into small groups.  Our instructor asked us to consider the following scenario:  "You are asked to write a history of this class.  How would you proceed?"

My group said that we would work hard to capture every aspect of the class each day, throughout the term, trying hard not to miss recording anything.  Others said they would wait until the end of the class to write up a history of what we had done.  One group said they would make sure to assemble all the handouts to go with their writing of the history of the class.

When we came back together to discuss, our instructor pointed out that "this class" could have many meanings.  Most of us focused on the history of the class we're about to take together.  But there are other possibilities.  We might write the history of Church history through the centuries--how have past generations approached this task of teaching this class?  We could have decided to write about the history of this class at this specific seminary--the course changed through the years in ways both substantial and minor.

We also talked as a class about how the writing of a history of a Church History class mirrors the writing of the history of Christ and the first Christians that happened in the first century.  How did those first Christians decide what to put in their accounts of Jesus and the first followers?  How would we do it?  Would you include every scrap of information or just the highlights?  How would you decide what the highlights were?  Would you be loyal to the truth, and how do we define "truth"?

It was a great way to get us thinking about Church History and all the ways we could both write a history and approach the topic of history.  The teacher in me loved it, and thought about how I could adapt it for other classes.  But that's a topic for a different blog post.

From that first night, I came away with the impression that we'll treat the topic of church history very expansively.  We'll think about what got included and whose voices have been left out.  We'll look at the agendas for the types of histories that have been preserved.

I know that I'm lucky.  Many seminaries might treat this class as a way to make sure we are properly trained/indoctrinated.  I'm lucky to be in a class that wants to train us how to think about the subject of church history and analyze it.  I'm lucky to be in a class that wants me to think about the meaning of truth as I search for it.