The place of Church History in Christian Education

Scott Spurlock joined Belfast Bible College in 2010, appointed as a Lecturer in Church History and Historical Theology. Originally from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, Scott has lived in the British Isles for over a decade. After completing studies in Ecclesiastical History and Historical Theology at the University of Edinburgh, he held positions at the University of Aberdeen, the University of Edinburgh and Trinity College Dublin. Scott also acts as Director of Postgraduate Studies at the college.

The place of Church History in Christian Education

The purpose of Belfast Bible College is the preparation of believers for Christian service. This service may take any number of forms, from missionary service abroad to work within their local church communities. As a core part of this process students are provided with courses on the Old Testament and New Testament, Biblical hermeneutics, pastoral care, ministry experience, and models of missiology and church planting. These are all very important aspects of formation that are included in many institutions. However, sometimes, one of the key components of preparation is neglected and that is where my role at BBC comes in. It is my goal to expose our students to the rich traditions of the Christian church, not only in the remote historical past, but also the rich diversity of faith communities that have taken root in geographical regions beyond Britain and North America.

As part of the college's new undergraduate degree programme through the University of Cumbria, students take a course entitled 'The Story of the Faith’. If this course had a subtitle, it would be ‘a global story’. While the course includes the traditional subjects of the early church, the Reformation and the awakenings that began in the eighteenth century it has a fuller more distinctive approach. In addition to these subjects, it seeks to place nearly an equal emphasis on non-European traditions. For example, we discuss the Nestorian missions that took Christianity to Persia, India and all the way to China by the seventh century. We also spend time addressing the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia that provided refuge to persecuted followers of Mohammed in the seventh century. In doing this we draw together several different perspectives.

First, our European and North American students are exposed to the reality that their own Christian traditions are not the only manifestations of the faith. It allows them to see how their communities and traditions fit alongside Orthodoxy and other Christian traditions. This helps to better prepare them for dialogue in the diverse cultural context that they will encounter. Second, students learn that many of the issues that are pressing for our own situation are not wholly new. Christians in previous generations have lessons to offer us in a number of different and helpful areas. For example, we have a great heritage to draw upon in relation to how Christianity has engaged with the pluralist world it has inhabited since its establishment. In particular, the lives of Timothy of Baghdad (d. 823) and John of Damascus (d. 749) offer us models of how Christians have dialogued with Islam in the past. Third, many of our international students are introduced to the reality that Christianity may have had a long history in their home nations prior to the colonial European missions. This is true for students from India, China, Kenya and elsewhere. Such a perspective enables us to learn from the mistakes and situations of the past, and offers students an enriched understanding of their historical context that may enable them to culturally acclimate their evangelical faiths within the diverse communities that they find themselves.

Besides the intentionally global approach to my teaching of church history, my own research focuses on the Christian traditions of early modern Britain and Ireland; a pretty formative period in the history of these islands. We offer courses on the Reformation in Britain and Ireland, seventeenth century Ireland, and Christianity in Ireland since the Reformation. Like the approach of teaching Christianity as a global movement, these courses offer students a clearer sense of how things in Ireland have come to be as they are. In doing this we unpack the question of whether it had to turn out the way it has and where we might begin as a starting point for change and healing.

Church history is not a collection of old stories and this understanding is core to our presentation of the subject. The story of the church is our heritage and it is our story. The body of Christ is a continuum that transcends history. As John Calvin declared, drawing on Hebrews 12:1, we must emulate the ‘saints’ that have preceded us. In unpacking this the greatest mind of the Reformed tradition spurs Christ’s followers not to be ignorant of their past but to draw upon the example of our progenitors in the faith so that ‘they ought more powerfully to stimulate us’.[1] That is what we are about at Belfast Bible College: Stimulating Christ’s servants to powerfully serve a world deeply in need.

[1] John Calvin, Calvin’s Bible Commentaries: Hebrews, (trans.) John Owen (Edinburgh, 1853), p. 311.