We need church historians to help us understand the present. The present is the sum of the past. We did not arrive at twenty-first century Christianity suddenly or by chance but through the long and slow development of the Christian faith over millennia. To know who and what we are, we must know who we were and where we have come from. We cannot understand the past or the future without a deep knowledge of the past.

There are entire academic disciplines that exist in a kind of self-perpetuating circle. Professors teach students so those students can become professors and, in turn, teach more students. Such disciplines serve no practical purpose and have no reason to exist beyond academia. Like mathematics, for example. It serves no purpose in the world and nobody ever uses math once they graduate. It exists only within schools so it can create that perpetual cycle of students and professors.

Thankfully, there are other disciplines that have very important practical purposes for the functioning of the world and the church. One of the obvious examples is church history. We need church historians because we need church history. Few things are more important to the life and health of Christianity than a sound knowledge of our shared past.

We need church historians to help us understand the present. The present is the sum of the past. We did not arrive at twenty-first century Christianity suddenly or by chance but through the long and slow development of the Christian faith over millennia. To know who and what we are, we must know who we were and where we have come from. We cannot understand the past or the future without a deep knowledge of the past.

We need church historians to help us grow in humility. Few things spur humility like a close study of the past. We see, for example, that every generation of believers has some great flaw, some prominent blindspot. The godliest generations of the past still permitted or endorsed terrible sins. Why should we think we are the one generation that has completely understood the truth and perfectly lived it out? Why should we think that our generation will someday be judged less harshly? A realistic view of the past gives us the humility to consider how we will be assessed in the future, and to address those flaws today.

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