Why dedicate time to studying the history of a two-thousand-year-old institution, in a world that runs forward and rarely looks back? The short answer is this: because you already live inside this story, without even knowing it, and to understand it is to understand yourself.
It's not about nostalgia or devotion. This is cultural literacy. There is an entire heritage of ideas, institutions and forms that we inherited without realizing it, and that only make sense in light of this history.
The West was born, in large part, here
Universities emerged from the Church. The first hospitals, too. Polyphonic music, Renaissance painting, the structure of law, the notion that each person has an inviolable dignity, all of this was gestated or matured within this twenty-century history. Ignoring it is like walking through a city without knowing who built the streets.
That is why the study is of interest to believers and non-believers. It is not necessary to accept a faith to recognize a historical fact of enormous proportions, with its lights and shadows.
The antidote to anachronism
We live surrounded by reduced versions of the past. We judge entire centuries with the ruler of the present, we condemn without context and we repeat clichés as if they were conclusions. Historians have a name for this error: anachronism.
Studying Church History is the antidote. It returns the context, shows the real decisions of real men and breaks down the caricature. A quick test reveals the size of the gap: can you name three specific characters from the Crusades, not the event, but the people? Whoever gets stuck there doesn't have an intelligence problem, but a narrative problem. No one told the whole story, in order.
Those who don't know where they came from judge the past by its appearance, and the present by half.
What do you get
Anyone who studies this history gains three rare things. Repertoire, because it begins to recognize the references that structure Western culture. Discernment, because it exchanges hasty opinion for understanding. And depth, because it understands that today's world is the most recent chapter in a long story, not the starting point.
How to turn this into a study
The desire to understand requires a method. The most complete path is the collection History of the Church of Christ, by Daniel Rops, ten volumes from the Roman Empire to the 20th century. To avoid going through such an extensive work alone, there is guided reading, chapter by chapter, with the historical, philosophical and theological context that transforms reading into understanding.
Estudo aprofundado
Curso História da Igreja, com o Prof. Dr. Rodrigo Bitencourt
Leitura aprofundada da obra de Daniel Rops, a história da Igreja contada com rigor e narrativa, do Império Romano ao Vaticano II.
Conhecer o curso de História da IgrejaFrequently asked questions
Is studying Church History only for religious people?
No. It's for anyone who wants to understand the West. Universities, hospitals, law, art and the very idea of person were born or matured in this history. Believers and non-believers have something to learn.
What is the point of studying this today?
To exchange hasty opinion for understanding. Those who know history judge less by cliché, understand the roots of the present and gain a cultural repertoire that few have.
Do I need prior training?
No. Just start in the right order, from the beginning, with a good guide. Philosophy and theology are incorporated as the context requires.
Continue: Where to start studying Church History · What is Church History? · Who was it Daniel Rops?