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, who will usher in a new heaven and a new earth. We must keep in mind this divine dimension of human history, especially when studying Church history. This is not merely one subject among many; it is a way to grow deeper in relationship with the Holy Trinity by recognizing and discerning the spiritual meaning of human affairs.
Our Family History
Given the importance of learning Church history, and the method by which it should be learned, we can ask another question: “How should we view Church history?” This book seeks to tell the story of the Catholic Church through the actions of the men and women who came before us in faith. Christ revealed God to be a loving Father, and we are adopted sons and daughters in Christ and heirs to the kingdom of heaven. We all live in the family of God, the Church. When we study the actions and events of our brothers and sisters in the Faith, we are studying our spiritual genealogy. Many people spend hours and resources tracing their earthly lineage, but, more importantly, because we hope to live with them in eternity, we should study the history of our spiritual family. Viewing Church history in this manner helps us understand that history is the subject by which we grow in our Catholic identity.
Part of our Catholic identity involves using the proper terms when learning Church history. As an example, the term “Christianity” is an unhistorical, post-Reformation term that “connotes an opinion or a theory; a point of view; an idea.”7 The Catholic faith is none of those things, as Catholics are not attached to an idea or a philosophy but to a Person (Christ) and to a thing (the Church). Additionally, “Christianity” implies a multiplicity of ways of living the Faith — that is, “Catholic Christianity,” “Protestant Christianity” — but there is only one Church that contains the fullness of Christ’s revelation, authority, and grace. Therefore, the term “Christianity” is not used in this book; rather, “the Faith” is utilized in accordance with the historical understanding of the Church.
The Importance of Learning Church History
Now that we understand the definitions of the Church and history, we must ask and answer another question: Why study Church history?
Learning Church history is vital for the modern-day Catholic for the four following reasons:
1. To make sense of our world
2. To know Christ better
3. To defend the Faith and the Church
4. To know who we are
The knowledge of our Catholic story gives meaning to the present age, which allows us to view modern-day problems with a deeper and more accurate perspective. Additionally, knowing the past can help shape our future decisions so that we can benefit the Church and the world. This worldview is not common thinking in our current culture, but is essential for the modern-day Catholic. Today’s society condenses complex issues and policy decisions into thirty-second sound bites. But focusing on the present is ultimately detrimental, since it makes humanity “lose their sense of the past, of history; but by doing so it also deprives them of the ability to understand themselves, to perceive problems and to build the future.”8
Since “Christ is the foundation and center of human history, [and] he is its meaning and ultimate goal,” studying Church history leads to greater knowledge of Jesus, which is the consummate goal of any Christian study.9 It can be difficult to see Christ in every event and human activity in the Church’s history, especially when those actions are not in conformity with Jesus’ example and teachings, but he is always present in his Mystical Body. Learning Church history allows us to grow deeper in love with the Lord and his Church.
Most Catholics in the United States learned non-Catholic history in school (unless they went to a Catholic school that taught them authentic Catholic history) because history as a whole is taught in the American educational system from an English Protestant perspective. As an example, I remember learning in secondary school about the cruelty and barbarism of the reign of “Bloody Mary” Tudor and the cultured, civilized court of her half-sister Elizabeth I. The standard Protestant (false) historical narrative paints “Good Queen Bess” as one of England’s greatest monarchs: a strong, intelligent woman with excellent judgment who led England into an era of prosperity and who was beloved by her people because she exhibited their strong Protestant convictions. This narrative is a “monstrous scaffolding of poisonous nonsense [that] has … been foisted on posterity.”10 In reality, the “Virgin Queen” was a figurehead, used and controlled by powerful men behind the scenes. Under her reign, the first state-sponsored persecution of the Catholic Church in Europe since the Roman Empire was undertaken. Elizabeth and her thugs killed, tortured, and imprisoned thousands of English subjects simply because they were Catholic (although Elizabeth’s Catholic half-sister Mary was inappropriately given the nickname “bloody”). Unfortunately, that historical truth is rarely presented in today’s history class. It is vital for us as Catholics to be able to defend the Church when she is maligned or misrepresented, and when myths are presented as historical fact. Catholics have an obligation to embrace the truths, both good and bad, about our past, and retake the historical narrative from the dominant Protestant (and increasingly secular) view.
The Church is called to continue Christ’s salvific mission, and each Catholic is given a role to play in that important drama. Before we can play our part, though, we need to know who we are — we must have a sense of Catholic identity, which we can find in Church history. The modern Western world exhibits cultural and historical amnesia on a national level. Nations that separate themselves from their Christian origins are apt to embrace immoral and totalitarian political systems, which erode individual rights and place the individual at the service of the state. In order to regain its identity, the Western world must relearn its Catholic history and hold in high esteem the supernatural and transcendent character of history — the recognition that God acts throughout human history. We must embrace what Hilaire Belloc termed “the Catholic Conscience of History,” wherein the Catholic
