Why Study the Past?: The Quest for the Historical Church

The old saying about being condemned to repeat the history we don’t know applies to Church history as much as to anything else. But we are often at a loss to know how to approach it. Much of what passed once for Church history was propagandist; and much of the best now written is brilliantly done but apparently detached from the Church’s present needs. We need a theological approach to Church history but not one that is just partisan. In seeking to explore this need, Rowan Williams offers s...