The pivotal events of the Christian faith – Jesus\u2019 birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension – occurred almost 2000 years ago. Those same foundational events are still celebrated today as believers meet together regularly as a community, just as they did in the first century. We still devote ourselves to the Old Testament and the apostles\u2019 teaching contained in the Bible. We still participate in the sacraments of baptism and communion, established by Jesus, and we continue to welcome people into local congregations. We are part of the One Church built upon the One Lord Jesus Christ, but we are divided by 2000 years from those who first gathered together and recognised Jesus as Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I talk with believers (and Christian leaders) it seems that most of us know something about what the New Testament says but have little or no understanding about how the 1st<\/sup> century influenced the New Testament writings. We also know something of what our Christian tribe believes but with little knowledge as to where those beliefs originated. The problem with this position is that a believer can be certain about what they believe and not know if it is truth, a syncretised belief or just plain heresy. The history of the last 2000 years of the Christian faith has had a profound influence on our thinking and practice today. To pursue that thought effectively our history can be viewed through a number of discernible historical periods, each of which produced very different views on how things fit together and \u2018the way things are\u2019<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The discernible periods of time that we\nwill use to review the complex history of Christianity (especially in the West)\nare somewhat artificial because history does not change abruptly. Nevertheless we\nneed a framework for our review: <\/p>\n\n\n\n In each of these periods of history,\nChristianity has wrestled with the unique emphasis of that time, based on the\nunderlying historical, cultural and philosophical systems, as it struggled to contextualise\nits faith\/beliefs. Consequently, a style or emphasis successful in one era\nchanges as another era begins. Those who remain committed to the old style\nfreeze that style for use in the subsequent eras. This process accounts for\nmuch of the diversity we have in the Christian Church today and allows us to\nunderstand the differences among Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant groups.\nRobert Webber sums up this historical process by highlighting the move from\nModernism to Postmodernism:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2018We\nare now living in a transitional time in which the Modern Era is coming to an\nend and a new worldview of Post-modernism is beginning to take shape. Some leaders will insist on preserving the\nChristian faith in its Modern style, others will run headlong into the sweeping\nchanges that accommodate Christianity to a Post-modern Era; and a third group\nwill carefully and cautiously seek to review historic Christianity at the dawn\nof a new era\u2019. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n If we are to move out of being embedded in past historical eras or being overrun by the latest and greatest ideas, I believe the last position introduced by Webber is the most helpful because it hopefully avoids the combative thinking that has been a part of the swings in Christianity over a 2000 year period<\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaders across the world recognise that Christianity is in a\nstate of major change. We may be at the beginning of an historical break-point\nthat will prove to be as dramatic as something like the Protestant\nReformation. The sobering thought is that\n\u2018business as usual<\/em>\u2019 may work for a while longer for some but there is a\nneed to begin transitioning our discipleship practices to meet the dramatic\nchanges that are already happening (especially in the West). To begin to\nunderstand and effectively grapple with this change, I believe we need to\nretrace the history of Christianity from its very beginning right through to\ntoday. We will see how the Church in different eras has outworked the\nCommission of Jesus to make disciples. Effective discipleship in this new era\nmust start with the Church\u2019s foundational historical beliefs, avoid the latest\nand greatest trend, and develop a contextualised process consistent with what\nthe Church has done throughout its history. This means it must be centred on God’s\n<\/em>agenda, rather than on other agendas. There is no place for compartmentalisation\nof faith, no part of the life of the disciple from which the Lordship of Christ\nis excluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The pivotal events of the Christian faith – Jesus\u2019 birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension – occurred almost 2000 years ago. Those same foundational events are still celebrated today as believers meet together regularly as a community, just as they did in the first century. We still devote ourselves to the Old Testament and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n