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This on-line book has been the product of preparation for classroom instruction. Paper editions of this university level textbook preceded this WebPages publication. Up until 2001 the class had been designed to cover only up to 1500 AD, but the revised course description effective that year extended History of Christianity I to 1650 AD.[revised 2008 to 1550] Hence, the on-line edition has been designed to include coverage of the Reformation and its aftermath to about 1650 AD.[revised 2008 to 1550] This seemed to require a radical foreshortening of the Fourth Edition's introductory and background chapters and a resizing of discussions on early Christianity. In the rewriting process several chapters were completely reorganized, and in some cases whole sections or chapters were omitted. For example, coverage of the historical and cultural contexts of the New Testament and the early Church as well as the coverage of the Church of the East were skipped. Part One: Ancient Christianity, of the First On-Line Edition now extends to c. 480 AD.
Part Two: Medieval Christianity, was designed to treat the period from about 500 AD to about 1300 [revised to 1275 for Fall 2002] AD. Here it seemed necessary at first to slight the materials dealing with Christian affairs in the Balkans and Eastern Europe in order to concentrate on western Europe.
Part Three: Early Modern Christianity, was designed to carry the story from about 1300 [revised to 1275] all the way to 1650.[revised 2008 to 1550] Although I have offered a course in the Renaissance and Reformation Period on numerous occasions my lecture notes on developments after about 1530 were not sufficiently "ready for prime time". Those last few lecture/essays are still (May 2004) "under consideration".
I began to put the First On-line Edition up on the web over a period of months beginning in the August of 2001 as I was teaching the History of Christianity I course at SBU. After the semester was over I decided to go back and incorporate more of the original Fourth Edition coverage, especially in Parts One and Two. Consequently, some materials originally omitted have now been added back into the appropriate lecture/essays of the First On-line Edition. The result has been that several lecture/essays are now far too long for a single classroom lecture, but a far richer and more meaningful coverage has resulted. Other omitted materials have been recast, augmented and developed as appendices to Part One: Ancient Christianity. Students in the History of Christianity I class in the fall of 2002 were assigned the First On-Line Edition in addition to other paperback textbooks. [During the Spring 2004, students enrolled in Roman Imperial Civilization and the Early Church, used the lectures and appendices of Part I: Ancient Christianity, as their primary textbook.][Again students in Roman Imperial Civilization and the Early Church in the Fall of 2005 used the same lecture/essays as their text.]
This is not a finished work. Editing, correcting, augmenting, and clarifying continues as an ongoing activity for the time being. The author welcomes feedback from readers, suggestions for clarification and corrections of matters of fact. I am very aware that some readers may not be happy to read what I have written while others may find it satisfying. I have intended always to be even-handed and fair, but there are many things about the History of Christianity that are inescapably impacted by our assumptions and prejudices. We all have to be aware of these minefields not far from any well-traveled common path. My vision of this Handbook is closer to a popular "coffee table" panoramic digest or typical college textbook than it is to a scholarly monograph. Only occasionally have I documented the well-traveled common paths, nor have I offered suggestions for further reading. If someone wants a full blown scholarly apparatus they must look elsewhere. If someone knows little or nothing about the history of western civilization as it has been the vehicle and context for the emergence and continuation of Christianity this Handbook offers a way to begin to see the big picture in some detail.
Here follows a short essay from the course syllabus the author wrote [in 1987] for students of HIS/THE 3463 History of Christianity I at Southwest Baptist University. This should perhaps give the reader a grasp of the author's point of view.
RATIONALE
Why Study the History of Christianity?
Christianity has many dimensions. From one point of view it is a unique and personal experience of relationship and communication with God. From another side it is a system of doctrinal affirmations or beliefs. From still another angle contemporary Christianity displays the characteristics of a corporate institution. Christianity is all this and more! It is a movement that has prevailed for nearly two thousand years. And its history is not one of mere survival like the dated items sealed in a time capsule. Rather, Christianity's history reveals a vital historical presence, as if it were an organism, if you please, characterized by dynamic growth, progressive elaboration and adaptive transformation.
In its fullest dimensions the History of Christianity is that part of world history since the resurrection of Christ that has been influenced by the ongoing proclamation and acceptance of the Gospel. Indeed, few developments in the Western world during the last nearly two thousand years have escaped the impact of the Gospel even if ever so slight. On the other hand, many parts of secular history have had unique counter-impacts on the Gospel and the lives of believers.
Whenever attempting to understand contemporary Christianity it is vital to remember that all the history of Christianity is important! That is not to say, of course, that all of Christianity's history is equally important. To be sure, the beginning period of Christian history, the period partially documented by the New Testament, is the most important and fundamental period in the total history of Christianity. The New Testament period was the starting point for Christianity, and it is the starting point for any student of Christianity! But, the study of Christianity that stops with the New Testament period can never adequately explain Christianity as it exists in the world today.
Anyone serious about being academically prepared to serve as a leader of Christians recognizes the value of instruction in a wide variety of Christian subjects over and above the history of the New Testament period. All such subjects attempt to bridge the distance between what the New Testament says and what Christians today should believe and do. Many of these subjects provide glimpses of the struggle Christians have had from time to time in adjusting to changing cultural realities. But it is the study of the history of Christianity that provides the richest panorama of such development. And it is, consequently, the only really adequate foundation for an understanding of all the variety of "things Christian" in the world today.
For most students in this class, Southern Baptist churches, organizations, institutions and missions are the most important parts of the "things Christian" in the world. It is important to recognize that "things Southern Baptist" seem important to us because we are directly involved with them and not because they are intrinsically of any more significance for Christian history than "things" labeled Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, or whatever.
Moreover, the "things Southern Baptist" that are so familiar to us can only be fully understood within the total context of "things Christian". Southern Baptists as a denominational entity have recorded only 150-some years of history; but, of course, a variety of groups claiming the name Baptist can be traced back another three centuries. Prior to the sixteenth century AD, however, there had never been a group of Christians that set themselves apart from others by adopting the name "Baptist". So, in the twenty-centuries-long tapestry of Christian history the "Baptist" threads are labeled visibly only in approximately the last 500 years.
The "Southern Baptist" thread in the great tapestry of Christian history has some of the same kinds of fibers in it that are found in the threads of other modern denominations as well as in the threads used to weave the ancient and medieval parts of the fabric. In this analogy these common fibers found in every thread of the tapestry represent the fundamental characteristics of Christianity found in one degree or another throughout the whole of Christian history from the beginning to the present.
In addition to these "Christian" fibers in the threads of the tapestry, if we may continue the analogy, there are an inestimable number of other fibers so numerous as almost to hide the Christian ones at times. These fibers represent the changing conditions of human culture and society, the forces of secular history. The texture and the visible pattern of the weave in the tapestry more often than not reflect the predominance of these "secular" fibers. Consider how God used the Assyrian and Chaldean empires to bring judgment upon His people in the days of Ancient Israel. God also used a secular Roman government to enforce a peace and a degree of prosperity that facilitated the spread of the Gospel. Throughout Christian history God has continued to use historical forces and conditions to accomplish His will. These historical forces have left their marks on the Christian movement; indeed, some Christian institutions and doctrines of the present day still carry the disfiguring "scars" that resulted from a confrontation with historical forces or conditions five, ten or fifteen centuries ago.
Typically, university-level survey courses skip along touching only the most significant events and developments. Textbook authors are forced to be highly selective, sometimes arbitrary, about what is considered significant. Moreover, circumstances force them to indulge in sweeping generalizations that distort reality and leave the door open for misunderstanding. Admittedly, survey textbooks are deliberately written for students who would never take the time to study the entire account in detail. More often than not they were written by authors who themselves have not studied the original sources nor the most complete analyses of more than a small fraction of the developments they summarize. Nevertheless, the textbook provides a structured, coherent account reflecting the viewpoint and understanding of its author. Wise students will remember to compare the viewpoints of several authors, especially authors who have specialized in the particular aspect of Christian history in question.
I am indebted to the Southwest Baptist University Computer Services Department and their competent staff for making the space available on the University's web server not only as a service to my students but to other readers around the world. From the standpoint of web technology all these web pages employ Cascading Style Sheet, were coded by hand, and W3C validated, in HTML 4.0 Transitional code using only Microsoft® WordPad. Since May 2003, each of these web pages has been upgraded and revalidated by hand as XHTML 1.0 Transitional. I understand that this species of hypertext coding is the most browser-independent currently available.
Originally posted 1 March 2002, corrected and updated 18 May 2004, 12 January 2006 and 23 January 2008
Harlie Kay Gallatin
This is a substantially re-organized, revised, and improved edition of the work by the same title published in 1994--without a Preface. Its purpose is the same. My aim in writing this Handbook is to provide the student with a tool designed to help achieve as accurate an historical understanding as possible of the history of Ancient and Medieval Christianity. I am concerned not simply with the incidental things this or that Christian, or group of Christians, did or said. I am concerned that the student come away with a sense of the mundane conditions in which Christian people lived, the issues they worried about, the not particularly uplifting or pious pressures that bent them out of shape, and the simple, ordinary, obvious conclusions they drew that seem today so amazingly and profoundly significant--or so pointless. There are other ways of presenting the story of Christianity that are not, if I may judge, really historical. The academic approach, with its mandate to cover "the subject" in the pages allotted, tempts an author to cut a very narrow swath, indeed, to clip as few blades of historical grass as possible to garnish the long list of essential personalities to characterize, ideas to explain, topics to mention, themes to follow and nomenclature to define. The result while chronologically organized all too often approaches the historical authenticity from a very unfortunate distance while honoring the traditional quasi-history, that mythological counterfeit that frequently masquerades as historical understanding in our day.
Appropriate and academically honorable as my aim surely is let me be quick to implore my readers not to condemn my purpose when my inconsistent performance is the real point of weakness. No one who has read this typescript will gainsay my assertion that it needs lots of "finishing". I should also reiterate a point I have often made about textbooks in history courses. No single textbook--not even one written by the teacher--is ever likely to contain everything vital to a student's understanding of any historical subject. Unfortunately, since time, energy, and objective judgment are among the rarest commodities in college age populations textbooks score much higher than library reading lists on the scale of undergraduate preferences. What you would probably learn from the reading list and might never discover from the textbook is the vast variety of approaches, understandings, explanations, and anecdotal information offered by different authors dealing with the same topic.
The idea for such a book as this began to intrude itself on my daydreams while I was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Central Missouri State University in 1960-61. I had been inspired and challenged by a two-semester course under Robert Trotter at William Jewell called The History of Christian Thought, and by still another year long general survey course at Central Baptist Theological Seminary taught by Rufus Crozier. When I came to Southwest Baptist College in 1961 as "history teacher" one of my assignments was to teach the six hour course sequence in Church History. After my leave of absence to complete my doctoral residency I did not teach the Church History courses again until the academic year of 1980-81 when I taught both parts. Since then I have taught only the History of Christianity, part I, at its regular two-year intervals. Charles Chaney, Dean of the Redford School in the early 80's, on more than one occasion admonished me to write my own textbook, but I didn't get around to doing much until I graduated from the typewriter to word processing software on my first personal computer in about 1984. My students have been patient and kind. Their positive responses to earlier parts of this work have encouraged me. Since all the composition, typing, editing, and correcting has been done personally it goes without saying that the many blemishes that remain are my sole responsibility.
H.K.G.
The Third Edition of the Handbook differs from earlier editions in both purely cosmetic and substantive ways. The most obvious cosmetic changes are in style and layout. The numbering of paragraphs has been discontinued and the utilization of various types of bulleted blocks has been greatly reduced, necessitating reorganization and rewriting of some portions of the text. A Times Roman font is now employed for titles, headings and subheadings within the text, while the text itself along with the headers and footers continue to utilize a Courier font.
Hopefully invisible are the numerous points at which lapses of grammar, spelling or gratuitous redundancy have been eliminated in the Third Edition. Some inconsistencies remain in the transliteration of words from the Semitic languages and from Greek where the English alphabet and available diacritical markings have often been adapted creatively. Unfortunately, the author remains the only proofreader so critics looking for flaws or inconsistencies will probably be in no mortal danger even if holding their breath until one is found.
Substantially newly written materials have been included to clarify and enrich accounts of a number of developments. Examples include information concerning the Church of the East in Parts Two and Three, and details about Christians and Churches in Muslim lands in parts Three and Four. Parts Three, Four, Five, and Six of the Revised edition (1996) have been thoroughly recast and rewritten in a more coherent and sensible organization comprising only three parts for the Third Edition. A new brief introduction has been written for each of parts Two through Six, and what would otherwise have become a short chapter 30 of the Handbook has been labeled the Epilogue.
I make no apology for the unusual amount of coverage given to what may be called secular history, but I will remind readers why it is here. Christian history does not occur in a vacuum but in the broader context of secular history. Ignorance of, or blindness to, that broader context in which Christian actions and thinking take place at any time is a guarantee of less than optimum understanding. While the author intends to provide the appropriate information on the broader context, his judgment is biased both by what he knows very well and what he doesn't know well enough. Though always stretching in that direction no history textbook ever achieves the pinnacle of objective truthfulness. But that can never be an excuse for irresponsible distortion. All responsibility for whatever successes or failures may herein be revealed accrues solely to the author.
I remain indebted to my students for their kind indulgence and encouragement as this book has gone through its several permutations over the years. And I gratefully acknowledge the longsuffering forbearance and graciousness with which my wife, my children and my grandchildren have endured my preoccupation with writing, proofreading and editing tasks all too often on their time. Their support has not only been freely given but is of incalculable value.
1998,
Harlie Kay Gallatin
The Fourth Edition retains the basic organization, format and coverage established in the Third Edition. However, many small sections have been rewritten to improve clarity and readability. A few sentences of new material have been included in several places. In particular I have expanded the table of contents so that on many major items it can serve a more useful purpose in the absence of an index.
The major task in preparation for the fourth edition was the migration and translation of the text from one word-processing software to another. This required optical scanning of the entire printed text of the Third Edition and converting it to the new software environment. This process has allowed the discovery and elimination of many spelling errors and incidents of grammatical impropriety. However, it has inadvertently introduced other types of errors, some of which may remain despite my best efforts to discover and eradicate them.
I am increasingly thankful for my family who has continued to suffer graciously the intrusion the various permutations of this project has made in my family time. I am also grateful that my students have continued to be kind and generous in their comments. My colleagues have also spoken much appreciated words of encouragement on occasion. But the reader must be careful to remember that no one other than the author with his biases and deficiencies can be held responsible for what was written.
It is my intention that this study of the cultural adaptations and expressions of Christians through the ages be a liturgy of worship, celebrating the continued responses of mankind to Our Heavenly Father's Grace and Mercy. It is also my hope that students who use this book will be blessed and enriched as well as informed.
2000
Southwest Baptist University
Bolivar, Missouri
Harlie Kay Gallatin
Most recently edited 14 January 2008