Introduction
“The Christian is someone who has a good memory, who loves history and seeks to know it.”1
Pope Benedict XVI, 2010
Often, we view the study of history as something mundane and tiresome. This is partially due to the way history is taught in the modern world. Teachers have limited time for instruction and are restricted by standards that require meeting objectives set by authorities outside the educational environment. As a result, the teaching of history is reduced to requiring students to memorize information — that is, names, dates, and events — with no meaningful link to their personal lives. The result is that students study to pass their tests and then quickly forget the material. History is just another boring subject. Historians also make history boring by writing for each other in thick, academic, and mundane tomes. Nonprofessional historians write many of the popular history books, because they are writers who desire to tell a historical story. These books sell because history is presented as it should be: a dramatic story of heroes and villains, told in a way that resonates with the reader and explains the makeup of the modern world by providing the context of the past. In a world focused on the sciences and business, history may be seen as a quaint subject. But in reality it is the subject, along with theology and philosophy, that can provide a sense of our human identity. Identifying with the Catholic Church is an important part of our faith lives, but that can be difficult if we do not know the history of the Church. You may have participated in Bible studies or learned Church doctrines or apologetics, but you are not alone if you have never studied Church history. This may be the result of the daunting task associated with learning two thousand years’ worth of events and people! Where does one begin? Perhaps we should first explore what we mean by “the Church.”
What is the Church?
In a document from the Second Vatican Council (1962–1965), titled Lumen Gentium (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church), the conciliar fathers wrote about the mystery of the Church, her hierarchical structure, the universal call to holiness of all members of the People of God, and the role of the Blessed Mother in the plan of salvation. Early in the document, the conciliar bishops provide a succinct definition of the Church: “Christ, the one Mediator, established and continually sustains here on earth His holy Church, the community of faith, hope and charity, as an entity with visible delineation through which He communicates truth and grace to all.”2 With this in mind, what is the Church? She was established by Christ — not created by a group of people who decided to get together and believe the same things. Rather, God himself founded the Church and sustains her in existence. The Church lives out the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love communally and through the actions of her individual members. She is an organization with a visible and hierarchical structure (pope, bishops, priests, deacons, laity). The Church’s structure is not the work of a committee or majority vote; it was divinely instituted, and is not subject to change by human whim. The definition from Lumen Gentium also answers the question of why Christ founded the Church: The Church is the instrument through which he communicates truth and grace (through the sacraments) to the world. The Church has a salvific mission, which is a continuation of Christ’s own mission of salvation. Lumen Gentium also describes the Church as a “complex reality” composed of both visible and invisible elements, which we describe as the Communion of Saints. The Church exists in three states: you and I are a part of the Church Militant (those on earth), while those who have died are members of the Church Suffering (souls in purgatory), and the Church Triumphant (the saints in heaven). The study of Church history is mostly concerned with the visible element of the past actions of the Church Militant, but it cannot ignore the invisible reality of the Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that “the Church is in history, but at the same time she transcends it. It is only ‘with the eyes of faith’ that one can see her in her visible reality and at the same time in her spiritual reality as bearer of divine life.”3
The Church is a living Church — she is neither confined to one historical era, nor does she remain static through the centuries. The story of the Church comprises the actions of the men and women who lived the Faith. Although the dogmas and doctrines of the Church are immutable, the presentation of those teachings and their lived expression by the faithful change and develop through the centuries of human existence, so that she presents the timeless treasures of the Faith to each new human generation. Therefore, we should not be alarmed at the changes that occur in the Church (although not in her essential elements) as she marches through human history.4
Finally, the Church is comprised of fallen, yet redeemed, human persons. As a result, the study of Church history is the study of their actions, both good and bad, and the effects of those actions on the life of the Church. The story of the Church is the story of saints and sinners and, more often than not, sinners who became saints! Studying the lives of those who came before us should encourage us in our struggles, and help us realize the need to continually fight against temptation and live our vocation to holiness in imitation of Christ. Through two thousand years of the Christian faith, there have been those, even in the highest office of the Church, who did not authentically live their vocation to holiness. There were popes who lived immorally, and an authentic study of Church history cannot gloss over their actions or make excuses. Rather, it should analyze them in order to learn from their mistakes and to defend the Church.
Ultimately, the study of the history of the Church — our own family history — should help us grow in our devotion and love of the Holy Spirit, who guides, guards, and animates the Church. For without the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Church would be simply a human institution, and would have disintegrated long ago. Indeed, as the Catholic historian Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) wrote, “When one remembers how the Catholic Church has been governed, and by whom, one realizes that it must be divinely inspired to have survived at all.”5
What is History?
Did you know that there is a Catholic understanding of history? In the ancient world, Greeks and Romans viewed history as a series of repetitive cycles with no beginning, central event, or end — they believed that human events repeated themselves in a never-ending cycle. History in the pagan world had no central meaning. The modern understanding of history is myopically narrow on the modern era and views the past with disdain, clinging to the supposed superiority of the present. A Catholic understanding of history, on the other hand, recognizes the central role of God. Presented originally by Saint Augustine of Hippo in his epic work The City of God, history is linear — it has a beginning and an end. God oversees and is involved in human history, proving his love for humanity and his intimate involvement in human affairs by sending the Second Person of the Trinity to take on human flesh. Christ’s Incarnation is the central event in human history — all history radiates outward (both forward and backward) from this crucial event. The climax of the Incarnation provides meaning to human history and a path out of the circular view of history espoused by the pagans. Christ came in “the fullness of time,” when the world was composed of the three great civilizations of the Jews, Greeks, and Romans. This is illustrated by the placard placed on Jesus’ cross by Pontius Pilate, identifying him as the “King of the Jews,” written in the three languages of those civilizations. The establishment of the Church ushered in a new civilization, forming a new culture out of the ancient world.6 The history of the Church is the study of this new civilization and its impact.
History, in the Catholic sense, is more than just the recording of human events. We refer to it as salvation history — the unfolding of God’s plan for his people, their sanctification, and their eventual union with him in heaven. Salvation history began with God’s act of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). God created the world, plants, and animal life, and then man and woman in his image and likeness. Unfortunately, the disobedient act of our first parents broke the relationship between humanity and God, but God did not leave us to our own devices. He sent his only begotten Son to restore that relationship and our chance for a share in the heavenly kingdom. In time, the created world will come to an end with the Second Coming of Christ,