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Christian History with No Excuses

 

When world history teachers introduce the Christian religion to students, it is often as a cultural factor in the transition from the ancient era to the Enlightenment. Rarely do the textbooks present Christianity as a religion that, from the beginning, has had a global aspiration because of Jesus’ instruction to His disciples to go into all the world, teaching, making disciples and baptizing. Perhaps it is assumed that the students already understand this missional objective. Much of Western history, from the Crusades to the colonialization of the Americas and the exploration of Africa can be contextualized as an expansion and defense of Christianity. This has often included actions and dogmas that are inconsistent with the core tenets of the faith even though, in many cases, the words of the Bible have been extracted to strengthen the resolve of the religious activists.

Andrew Walls wrote that “Christian history may be seen as a succession of cross-cultural movements”[1] starting with its initial transformation of Judaism. From Jerusalem, the faith impacted the Hellenistic Roman Empire, clashing with its persecution of many of the Christians until Constantine’s accommodations in 313 CE. It spread through the Persian Empire and into India and China between 339-635 CE. King Ezana of Ethiopia converted to Christianity and brought his subjects with him into the faith in 316 CE[2]. Christianity spread into north-eastern Europe impacting the barbarian tribes starting around the same time. With the advent of Islam, the center of Christianity moved to Europe – to Rome and Constantinople (followed by Moscow). It also traveled to the “new world” with the explorers and colonists. Its missional objectives, unfortunately, were twisted and militarized during the Inquisition by a papal bull we know as the Doctrine of Discovery[3], which persists in international law today. Now, Christianity is the largest religion in the world with loyal adherents living on each of the six inhabited continents in spite of the atrocities by which its message has from time to time been spread.

Whenever Christianity has become ambitious for political power, whether this is to make a land-grab as in the Crusades and the later European empire-building efforts or to control elections and legislative agendas, it has lost its focus on the love of God. Unfortunately, Christianity has frequently resorted to military might to enforce its ambitions, using the force of religious conviction to justify any intended or accidental carnage. Christianity has much blood on its hands. These damming incidents and genocides are not consistent with what the “Good Book” requires. The Bible does not permit Christians to mete out consequences to people who choose not to embrace the faith. Infidels are not to be enslaved, conquered, maimed or put to death.  The Bible leaves the consequences of a person’s unbelief to eternity. For earthlings now, the Bible offers a spiritual relationship with a loving, all-wise, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator God through faith in Jesus Christ to any who respond to the invitation. Christianity offers the assurance of salvation to all who call on and appeal to the name of Jesus Christ.

Christians, however, have frequently taken the biblical call to reach the world with their message of hope as license to force people to convert or to be governed by its beliefs. This creates a mixed message. Is God loving and does He offer salvation as a free choice to those who believe that Jesus is Lord and that God sent Him to be the ultimate sacrificial lamb to make peace between people and Himself? Or is God a bully who offers no freedom but calls His servants to intimidate and exterminate people who do not succumb? For Christians, the answers to these questions are found in the Bible. For Christians, the Bible is clear that there is no other name than Jesus Christ by which we can be saved. For teachers of world history at any educational level, the goal is not to move the students to make a personal response to a spiritual claim or invitation. It is to set the facts in place – the good and the bad – on a timeline. It is also to provide the students with enough information about the ideas, writings, conflicts and convictions that motivated the Christians to enact and/or respond to historic events so that the students can objectively evaluate the issues and approaches. Of course, there will be students who are adherents of the faith as well as those who are antagonistic or even truly ignorant about its claims and its history so the things you teach may produce passionate discussions in the classroom. Your job is to monitor the debate, keeping it within the bounds of collegiality. It is not your responsibility to defend or to deface the faith.

Our goal at the Kentucky Faith & Public History Project is to provide factual information about the Christian religion and its history with an emphasis on the Christian history of Kentucky. The Project is sponsored by Christians but we, in no way, will be propagandist nor will we white-wash the times and the peoples who have been treated by Christians, in the name of the faith, in ways that are inconsistent with the tenets of our faith. For that, there are no excuses.

c. 2021 By Lesley Barker PhD


[1] Walls, Andrew. “The Growth of the Christian Church” in Peter Brierley and Heather Wraight. Atlas of World Christianity. 2000. Thomas Nelson Publishers. Nashville, TN.

[2] Ibid.

[3] https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/what-is-the-doctrine-of-discovery/

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