Communion Sanctorum

[JM]

I've been listening to Communion Sanctorum and really enjoying the format and Protestant perspective on church history. I recommend it.

History of the Christian Church - Communio Sanctorum

Yours in the Lord,

j

 

[abacabb3]

Cool, will definitely check this out. I'm starting a new job with a longer commute and less PC time in a couple of weeks, I'll delete all of my wife's taylor swift and download those MP3s.

 

[JM]

I'm on lecture 25!

 

[abacabb3]

Only 5, I really want to take a lot of stuff in, though I already caught a few assumptions that didn't square with my reading of the fathers. For example, he said that the Apostolic Fathers used a lot of OT. However, he clearly had in mind CLement, as Polycarp and Ignatius used a lot more NT.

 

[JM]

From what I understand he’s using the work of historians…

 

[abacabb3]

Historians are human like the rest of us...they get tons of stuff wrong. Ultimately, unless you read all the primary sources (which I would like to do but sometimes I get bored), you can't catch it all.

Ultimately we trust authority of some sort. The Catholics accept that the Church of Rome is accurately presenting tradition. Protestants accept that their particular denomination and confessions accurately present tradition...some "Protestants," with no regard for history or confessions, essentially trust that their Pastor and his Bible is accurately presenting everything right.

Ultimately we are trusting someone or something, we make a judgement call of sorts. I suppose my approach is like Augustine's in Book VI of the Confessions. He accepted the Bible on the stuff he couldn't verify, because it was totally right about all the things he can verify. Hence, the authority of the Scripture in this sense is self-authenticating.

Now, churches and historians ultimately get judged in a similar way, obviously fall short of the mark of Scripture, and so we need to decide if they are mostly reliable or not. So far, so good with the series. I have read Tacitus' letter and such, so he is essentially accurately presenting that letter. When he makes other claims such as "the Church of Jerusalem was set up like a contemporary synagogue" I simply don't know his sources, so I guess I trust him...unless I run into tons of stuff that I can verify are not true (i.e. Ignatius and Polycarp quoted mostly the Old Testament). Just take a brief look at Polycarp: CHURCH FATHERS: Epistle to the Philippians (Polycarp)

 

[JM]

I'm not much of a humanist...I don't trust myself that much. :--)

 

[abacabb3]

Sometimes it scares me. Honestly, I am so depraved I can be so easily deceived. This is why i pray that the Holy SPirit lead me and His CHurch into all truth.

 

[gord44]

Sometimes it scares me. Honestly, I am so depraved I can be so easily deceived. This is why i pray that the Holy SPirit lead me and His CHurch into all truth.

You don't seem depraved at all my good man. During our correspondence I found you to be a real stand up chap with mid to upper management written all over you!

 

[abacabb3]

 

[gord44]

Well played sir!

 

[JM]

gord, you enjoy history if I recall correctly, give it a listen.

 

[gord44]

I check 'er out!