The Faith of the Church Historian

by the Very Revd Father Anastasios Bozikis (Lecturer in Church History)

From the formal inauguration of ecclesiastical history by Eusebius of Caesarea until the twentieth century, the work of the church historian had been undertaken mainly by Christian scholars.[1] For the most part, these historians worked with the available evidence in drafting their narratives but had no hesitation in ascribing the cause of improbable events to divine intervention. In this way, Albert Outler claims, ‘…they confused their history and their metahistory…[T]hey not only flawed their narratives; they came near to spoiling the doctrine of providence.’[2] The move in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries to a secular, empirical and disinterested methodology in general historical studies, inevitably impacted the study of church history as well. In order to engage with the wider academy, church historians, felt compelled to adopt such an approach and base their historical analysis solely on the sources, ultimately hiding their personal beliefs from the reader.[3]

Nevertheless, throughout this early formative period, there were significant scholars such as August Neander (1789-1850, Friedrich Tholuck (1799-1877) and Philip Schaff (1819-93), who continued to view the ‘…historical method as compatible with non-empirical religious causes and an appeal to providence.’[4] By the middle of the twentieth century, such an appeal to God’s providence would be renewed by certain church historians who felt that the focus on critical and empirical methods was in danger of overlooking the centrality of God’s action in history and called for ‘…the “re-theologization” of church history…’[5] It was the move to religious history, which began in the 1950s, as a consequence of the impact of the social sciences, that halted this appeal to ‘ultimate meanings’ and reasserted the pre-eminence of a methodological objectivity.[6]

It was felt that as a historical religion, Christianity should be open to examination by all historians no matter what their faith, or lack thereof.[7] In fact, it came to be seen as an advantage for the historical scholar to have no settled opinion on divisive theological issues so that they could approach past disputes with an open mind.[8] Even Christian scholars no longer believed that any sort of Christian commitment gave the historian an advantage in the study of Christian origins.[9] In a sense, and to paraphrase Outler, the radical secularization of ecclesiastical historiography resolved the problem of providence by suppressing it.[10]

Despite the obvious benefits that such a methodology has in terms of respecting, and confining the historian to the sources and dealing with the evidence in a way that permits them to engage with the wider academic community, it also raises some obvious difficulties. Every religious historian, whether Christian or not, brings to their work an outlook and worldview that cannot help but colour their writings. Even the very choice of studying a particular ecclesiastical event imbues it with an unstated theological significance and to deny this can invite accusations of cynicism on the part of the reader.[11] It can also be argued that a secular historian might not be able to empathise properly with historical subjects motivated primarily by religious concerns and may even misunderstand their actions and distort them by explaining them solely in political or economic terms.[12] Membership in a particular religious tradition might also offer insights into its historical journey that would be unavailable to an outsider.[13] While not discounting the prejudices and ‘blind spots’ that accompany such a religious background, the contribution of the Christian historian has the real possibility to raise issues that may not seem obvious to academics with other philosophical outlooks while, at the same time, highlighting the difficulties of any single ideology seeking to account for the complexities of history.[14] It is in this context that convictions about what makes history meaningful re-emerge as salient and the Christian contribution is indispensable. While all such ‘meaning’ judgments are, ultimately, metahistorical in nature, they are essential to the writing of good history and the Christian historian is in a position to proffer an alternative vision to the anthropocentric ideologies that sought to replace the notion of divine providence.[15]

Any attempt to return to a ‘providential’ understanding of history can no longer presume to be able to authoritatively discern the hand of God in a historical narrative, at least as episodic divine interventions in the course of human events. Such an approach has been recognised as both bad history and bad theology.[16] The historian’s task is not to study God but human beings. In the words of Father Georges Florovsky:

                        The purpose of a historical understanding is not so much to

detect the divine action in history as to understand the human

action – that is, human activities – in the bewildering variety

and confusion in which they appear to a human observer.[17]

It is beyond the remit of the historian – in fact, it is the task of a prophet - to apprehend the workings of God in each historical instance. In a sense, every event falls within the will, and therefore, the providence of God.[18] It is possible, though, to acknowledge God’s ultimate care and concern for humanity in each historical instance[19], even as the Christian historian relates and analyses both the tragic examples of human sinfulness and the triumphs of the human spirit.[20] Robert McKenzie posits that an important contribution that can be made through the study of history is to facilitate moral reflection by ‘…invit[ing] figures from the past to speak into our lives, to the end that we may more clearly see and more honestly evaluate our values, behavior, and worldview.’[21] And so, as the Christian historian searches for demonstrable cause and effect amongst the generally accepted sources, their religious presuppositions can impart important lessons on the human condition throughout the ages and thus become one way in which the Christian expresses their faith.[22]

About the Author

Very Revd Father Anastasios Bozikis Lecturer in Church History at St Andrew's Greek Orthodox Theological College Father Anastasios Bozikis lectures in Church History at St Andrew's. He graduated in 1990 with a Bachelor of Commerce from The University of Queensland and moved to Sydney the following year to study Theology at St Andrew’s Greek Orthodox Theological College where, in 1995, he graduated with a Bachelor of Theology.  He received the degree of Master of Theology with Merit from... Read author's full bio here..

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