It was the high noon of the Middle Ages, the 11th century (ad 1001 to 1100). Although closer to completion than ever, the project of establishing a “Christian Europe” was still a work in progress.

Like it or not, the middle 1,000 years or so of church history—from about 500 to 1500, the period we call the Middle Ages, or medieval period—are inextricably bound to the history of Europe. Up until then, Christianity was a thoroughly multi-continental movement, primarily because most Christians lived in the Roman Empire, which extended into Europe, Africa, and Asia. We know that the Gospel penetrated beyond the reach of Rome’s iron grip, since the book of Acts records the evangelism of people from what is now Iran (Acts 2:9) and Ethiopia (Acts 8:26-40), and that Nestorian Christians (who objected to Mary being called Θεοτόκος [theotokos], i.e., “God-Bearer,” or “Mother of God”) reached China in ad 635, and in one sense or another it would always continue to transcend its Mediterranean beginnings. But after the fall of Rome it was primarily in Europe that God chose to preserve His word and protect His people during a time when everything that “civilized” people had been depending upon to make sense of the world fell apart, and there was nothing to fall back on but God—or, as some less pious might prefer, God and a good sword.

Today people speak of “post-Christian Europe,” and we tend to think of “Christian Europe” as extending from the time of Constantine to perhaps the beginning of the 20th century. But for centuries after Constantine, a large portion of the continent remained pre-Christian, until it finally gave way to the tireless work of missionaries. (more…)

Back in the 19th century, in London’s Central Criminal Court (also known as the Old Bailey), a witness might be asked the question, “What kind of night was it?” And it was considered neither odd nor impertinent for the response to come back, “It was a dark night.” [e.g., Henry Buckler, Criminal Central Court. Minutes of Evidence, Taken in Shorthand, Vol. 8, (London, UK: George Herbert, Cheapside, 1838), 202.] This kind of exchange probably also occurred many times in other courts, in other countries, and in other languages. The way our sprawling urban nights today are so brightly lit as to render most of the stars and the entire Milky Way galaxy invisible, it’s easy to forget that once upon a time, when weather was not a factor, there were only two kinds of nights: bright, clear nights that were lit up by the moon, and dark nights that were not.

It’s also easy to forget that, considering the span of recorded history, those days were really not that long ago. Thomas Edison invented the first commercially practical incandescent light in 1879, but it would be decades before all the major cities of North America and Europe would have electrical outlets to plug them into. The generation that grew up prior to urban electrification may be all but gone, but the one that grew up prior to the U.S. Rural Electrification Act of 1936 only started hitting retirement age in the last decade or so. Many of those people remember very dark nights, indeed.

But there is a darkness that no one alive today remembers. There was a time in European history when the light of ancient learning and culture from the glory days of Greece and Rome seemed all but extinguished. It seemed to be, as William Manchester (1922-2004) put it in the title of his bestselling book, A World Lit Only By Fire. (more…)

I like things to be simple. I like them to be clear. What can I say? I’m a simple guy.

I prefer bullet points to paragraphs, illustrations to explanations, and maps to directions. I prefer monosyllabic Anglo-Saxon words (like “ask,” “come,” and “dog”) to polysyllabic Latin-based words (like “inquire,” “arrive,” and “canine”). Among my favorite expressions are “bottom line,” “cut to the chase,” “it all boils down to,” “the whole thing in a nutshell is,” and “KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid).”

I get irritated when people make things more complicated than they need to be. I become especially annoyed when Christians hide the light of the Gospel under the bushel of sophisticated theological jargon. When I was a new believer such people made me feel what I think Woody Allen might have been trying to express when he said, “If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank.” They use big words to feed their own egos at the expense of the spiritual growth of others. (more…)

Last week I noted the extent of the role of religion involved with Barack Obama’s presidency. Imagine my surprise when I read about Newsweek Magazine’s Evan Thomas on Obama: ‘He’s sort of God’:

I mean in a way Obama’s standing above the country, above - above the world, he’s sort of God.”

Newsweek spends a fair amount of paper and ink debunking religion each year, particularly around Easter. But, they seem to have had a religious conversion to what we might call Obamaism. Thomas’ conversion to Obamaism actually makes sense in an irrational way. Confused? Well, in the world of Obama this new deity told the Notre Dame crowd when he spoke there that being prolife is an extremist position. As talk show host Rush Limbaugh pointed out, Obama is declaring that morality is immoral. Obamaism is irrational and as is true with all good false teachers, redefines the world and any morality they hold to in a new or opposite to what has traditionally been held to be true. For example, Obama says US cannot impose its values: BBC interview. He says this even as he (more…)

The last presidential election was interesting, of great concern and steeped in religion. God, it seemed, was in use by all candidates. On the Republican side, the candidates came down to a choice of three. Mitt Romney (Mormon), Mike Huckabee (Evangelical) and John McCain (Raised Episcopalian; now attends a Southern Baptist church). On the Democrat side it came down to Hillary Clinton (United Methodist) and Barack Obama (Trinity United Church of Christ, Afro-centric rooted in Black Liberation Theology which at its core is Marxism wrapped in Christian sounding terminology).

Evangelicals seemed to be split into four segments which I think made all the difference in the outcome of the election. One segment, the Emerging Church represented in Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Donald Miller and others in the merging Evangelical Left. They supported Barack Obama because (more…)

I was in second grade at St. Christopher’s School in Midlothian, Illinois. The ink was still drying on the documents of the Second Vatican Council in Rome and I was preparing for my First Holy Communion in the Catholic church with about 30 to 40 other children (those were the days of big class sizes) who were often giddy with excitement at the thought of the parties and presents that followed this rite of passage. I was hoping for my first wristwatch. (more…)

One of the newest naysayers to the validity of the Bible is Bart Ehrman. In our Journal article To Error is Ehrman (which begins on page 16 of the fall 2006 issue) we review Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus we pointed out that he is at least functionally post-modern. There is no real way to know historical truth since the historical writers are only communicating perceptions. He was and continues to be very clear that the Bible is fundamentally not reliable. There is little he says that is new but rather he has simply joined ranks with Jesus Seminar types, like John Dominic Crossan, retired Episcopalian Bishop John Shelby Spong, Marcus Borg as well as Elaine Pagels in his Hysterical Search for the Historical Jesus. In Former fundamentalist ‘debunks’ Bible a review of Ehrman’s most recent book, Jesus Interuppted, CNN (hardly the bastion of Conservatism) reviewer John Blake concurs: (more…)