A People’s History of the Church

I’ve always loved history. Since elementary school it was one of my favorite subjects. But when I read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, I was introduced to a perspective on history that had never occurred to me until then: History is written by the winners. And the history of Christianity is not any different. Those that wrote down Church history were those that had power.

A man named, Eusebius–who lived around 300 AD–is typically referred to as the “father of Church history.” Eusebius was also the biographer and eulogist of the most powerful man in the world at the time; Constantine, the emperor of Rome. So, it is clear that Eusebius was writing from a particular perspective and that it was certain to be favorable of his boss.

Can we assume that the history we read from writers such as Eusebius to be the only perspective? I don’t think so. We often find that those who wrote positively about the Church and it’s relationship to economic or political power to have been biased, neglecting much of the reality for common people during that era.

In A World History of Architecture, the authors write, “The adage ‘history is written by the winners’ is nowhere more strikingly illustrated than in the generation of Eusebius… Modern historians have caught Eusebius out in promoting his vision of unity in harmony at the expense of the messier reality called historical truth; Constantine’s Church was neither unified nor harmonious. Little wonder, then, that Eusibius’ vision of God’s edifice would nourish the architects–actual and metaphorical–of a Christian empire for a millennium to come.”

Were the voices and experiences of the losers ever documented? Sure. And just as Howard Zinn has shown, with a little bit of digging around, you can find the voices of the dissenters; those that were reluctant of the Church’s relationship to the state or market. It’s just that they’re usually harder to find.

I’ve decided to start posting every once in awhile on some of these “dissenters”. I’m calling it “A People’s History of the Church”. It’s a nod to Zinn and his approach to history. Of course, I’m not a historian, so this won’t be academic stuff. My desire to write these forthcoming posts comes from a conviction of mine. That conviction is that our history animates us. It provides a story to live into today. If we read history wrong, we live wrong. I want to live as best as possible and as I’ve read stories of Christians that have lived in contrast to the status quo I have found hope to live out my faith in ways that counter those that are popularized in our culture. I won’t be posting chronologically. I will be posting on things as I read, or pulling from past things I have read. And it will continue to be mixed with the other things we write about here on the Ecclesia Collective blog. If you have books, links, ideas, etc. please feel free to post them in the comments or even submit a story for us to post by emailing us at ecclesiasd [at] gmail [dot] com.

If this already has you interested, I would recommend you pick up Radical Faith by Mennonite author John Driver. This book is the closest thing to a people’s history of the Church that I have read yet. It’s not easy to find nor is it cheap. But it is worth it. Driver documents several dissenting Christian movements throughout history and, of course, he includes the Anabaptists. I would also recommend you read Water, Faith & Wood by my friend, Chris Smith. Chris does a great job familiarizing the common reader to the Early Church (approximately the first 3 centuries of the Church) as well as provide practical lessons for today from the life of the Early Church. Chris includes contemporary translations of a lot of Early Church texts in his book as well.

Jason Evans is a co-founder of the Ecclesia Collective and a member of the Hawthorn House. He is married to