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Protestants and Church History

Amy Welborn writes on the latest Wheaton College news: Evangelical Protestantism, especially in the US, was/is really only able to thrive in an a-historical environment, in sort of the mystical, Wesleyan, pentecostal model. When you just have Scripture and Holy Spirit, you can be very independent and thumb your nose at the Catholic Church. Learning […]

Amy Welborn writes on the latest Wheaton College news:

Evangelical Protestantism, especially in the US, was/is really only able to thrive in an a-historical environment, in sort of the mystical, Wesleyan, pentecostal model. When you just have Scripture and Holy Spirit, you can be very independent and thumb your nose at the Catholic Church. Learning Church History changes that.

Via The Japery.

Ms. Welborn’s impression is an interesting one. However, my admittedly anecdotal experience suggests otherwise, at least when it comes to Protestantism and Orthodoxy. It is difficult to impress on a fellow Orthodox Christian, including the converts from Protestant churches (and there are more than a few such converts at my own parish), just how unconcerned many evangelicals are with church history as a source of authoritative or normative truth about Christianity. Anything in the post-Apostolic period is simply irrelevant. Protestants raised to rely solely on Scripture do not begin doubting this principle when they are confronted with the certain truth that all Christian exegetes since before Origen have relied on an authoritative Church Tradition–they are simply convinced, in my experience, that this proves that all of those exegetes are unreliable and are capable of distorting the meaning of Scripture. The best that can be said of the Tradition is that it does not contradict Scripture, and the worst that it is all just made up nonsense, another form of paganism or idolatry or simply extra-Biblical invention.

The writings of the Fathers, the lives of the Saints and the elaboration of Christian doctrine might be interesting to them in a sort of antiquarian way, the way that many Americans gape at European cathedrals without any interest in the sort of religion that created them. But these are not texts that provide authoritative teachings, or even represent an authoritative Tradition. They may produce some very adept students of patristics and church history, but there is simply no question that Protestants are necessarily more inclined to the great hierarchical churches once they start learning their own history. If anything learning that history only confirms for them the absurdity of ecclesiastical boundaries and hierarchy. Instead of marveling at the continuity and integrity of doctrine, on which they themselves now rely, there is indifference mixed with contempt at the political wrangling inevitably associated with something as important as an ecumenical council.

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