30 Key Moments in the History of Christianity: An Interview with Mark W. Graham

“Contrary to popular belief, real history can never simply be about names, dates, and facts. It can, however, recapture moments.” So reflects early church historian and archaeologist Mark W. Graham in the introduction to his new book, 30 Key Moments in the History of Christianity: Inspiring True Stories from the Early Church Around the World.

Graham is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at Grove City College. In the interview below, he explains his vision behind this new book—and why all Christians should learn more about the first millennium of Christianity.

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Nadya Williams: This is a fascinating book—a history of the first millennium of Christianity through 30 key moments. I will be honest and admit here: I'm an ancient historian, and I was only familiar with 18 of these. The other 12 were individuals or episodes that I knew little to nothing about. But then, I think that is your point in this book: For most American Christians, our knowledge of Christianity's first millennium is too European, and we miss out just how far Christianity had spread already fairly early on in its history. Can you tell a bit more about your vision for this project: How did you come up with the idea for this book? And how did you select these 30 key moments?

Mark W. Graham: The whole project actually began with a simple request from a couple in my church to present a brief moment from church history each Sunday to start off the Christian education hour. About six months in, I took a look at my stack of brief presentations and wondered if there might be a book there, or some chance to bring these moments to a wider audience. Much of the material in these brief studies was drawn from four ancient/medieval history classes I have taught at Grove City College over the years—"The Roman Empire,” “The Rise of Christianity,” “Medieval Europe,” and “Byzantium and Islam.” The vision for the project emerged, then, as I was challenged week by week to present material I had long taught in a college classroom but now in a way that it might connect meaningfully with my fellow parishioners of all ages and various walks of life. The broader structural themes emerged organically, and I usually tended to see them only in retrospect.

I did not select the moments because I thought they were “Turning Points” (although a few definitely happen to be), nor am I making any claim here to a “Top Thirty” list. Rather, I chose individual moments that I thought could encourage and challenge Christians even today. I stuck to the year 1000 as an ending point because my own historical vision gets a bit hazy after that date.

I determined from the outset that examples must be drawn from around the world as well, as a reflection of the catholicity of the church from earliest times. I was never aiming at a single Church History narrative here, so I was free to bring in disparate moments from Britain to western Europe to Sudan to Persia to China. So, I also chose moments which would introduce Christians today to brothers and sisters across space and time in the first millennium of the faith.

Finally, I tried to diversify the types of topics to appeal to a variety of human interests—political, intellectual, military, cultural, doctrinal, ethical, ecclesiological, missiological, etc.—as well as share the occasional fascinating, bizarre, and/or harrowing story. Some moments are inherently encouraging and even inspiring, and some are definitely more along the lines of cautionary tale.

Nadya Williams: Round numbers are fun when planning out a book, so I get why there are 30 key moments, and not 29 or 31. But I'm also curious: Were there other contenders that you had considered including in the book but ultimately had to leave out for reasons of space?

Mark W. Graham: By the time that the book idea was fully formed, I imagined and hoped that the number 30 might conjure up, among other things, images of a full month of short daily readings—a sort of “daily dose of history.” Yes, there were indeed plenty of moments left on the cutting floor. I often have nagging doubts—should I have included this or that story instead of the ones I did? These would be moments like the destruction of the Jewish Temple in AD 70, the Sack of Rome in 410, The Council of Ephesus in 431, The Council of Chalcedon in 451, and the murder of Duke Vaclav (“Good King Wenceslaus”) in 935.

Nadya Williams: Some of the lesser-known stories in your book pertain to the Church of the East. Can you explain a bit more: What is this tradition? Why is it important for us today to learn a bit more about it?

Mark W. Graham: My real exposure to the Church of the East came through personal contacts with Iraqi Christian refugees when I lived in the San Francisco Bay area, where there is a vibrant community. Today, they usually call themselves “Assyrian Christians.” Their head bishop for North America graciously came to a college class I was teaching to introduce this Christian communion to my students. Each Easter my Presbyterian Church in Sunnyvale, CA held a joint service with many Assyrian Christians—affirming the Nicene Creed together was a highlight of the church year for me personally.

But besides their continued existence today, historically the Church of the East has at times been a majority report of Christians on earth. And the geographic spread of the Church of the East in the first millennium can shock some modern Christians. Christians today, perhaps especially evangelicals, usually imagine that global mission—or even just sharing the faith outside one’s one political borders—must have always played a significant part in the History of Christianity. Not so. Sharing the faith outside the boundaries of one’s one empire or kingdom was actually quite rare in the first millennium, for the Western Churches in particular.

One of my chapters tells the story of how Gregory I, the Great (bishop of Rome from 590-604) formulated his ideas to missionize outsiders—note that this was unheard of in his day and for centuries before him. But the Church of the East was a church without borders from its inception, spreading the gospel throughout the Middle East, and all along the Silk Road in Central Asia, and even the Far East to China. The Church of the East also stands out for much of the period covered by the book as a rare example of a church without an intimate connection to an empire or kingdom.

The Church of the Late Roman Empire, the Byzantine Church, the Western Medieval Church all tended to meld together the Christian faith and imperial politics. The Church of the East provides a strong alternative to this particular type of politicized Christianity in the pre-modern world. Also, those who imagine the History of the Church as a linear (and teleological) tale beginning in the Roman Mediterranean then moving to Medieval Western Europe, then giving a nod to Byzantine Eastern Christianity before coming back to Early Modern Reformational Europe are missing a massive amount of the History of “Our People”—Christians through time affirming “one holy, catholic and apostolic church.”

In short, the history of Church of the East provides one solid reminder to us that there has always been a truly global church and not just a western church with a few exceptions here and there, even during the so-called “Middle Ages,” when so many imagine that the Western Catholic Church was synonymous with Christianity on earth at that time.

Nadya Williams: While this is a book of history, your aims are not solely historical. The book's subtitle reminds of this: "Inspiring True Stories from the Early Church Around the World." Can you explain a bit more about this: why are these stories inspiring to us today? What do you hope they will inspire your readers to do and reflect?

Mark W. Graham: It was really after I completed a first draft of the book (minus introduction and conclusion) that I noticed that two major threads seemed to wind through the book. Neither one surprised me that much because I have long found myself reflecting on these myself. The first is the question of political identities of Christians amidst empires and kingdoms. How did they (and how should we) deal with the inherent and variegated tensions of being at once citizens of the City of God and the City of Man? The second is the recurring theme of apocalypticism throughout Christian history. How can Christians make sense of tumultuous, even seemingly “unprecedented” times without going to bizarre and sometimes even dangerous extremes? I hope that the moments here will help Christians reflect on both of these questions in historically informed ways.

Beyond these two major threads, there are various strands. I certainly hope to inspire readers with a deeper appreciation of Our People across space and time—to participate in their sufferings, to learn from their examples and to avoid their mistakes which, like our own, appear in high relief only in retrospect. To see how they shared the faith, how they dealt with persecution, responded to schism and heresy. How they handled political favor and success along with disappointments and dashed dreams. How they dealt with charming wolves and unlikeable Fathers. How they understood and misunderstood Scripture, compromised with the world, faced military threats and foreign occupation, dealt with decline and recovery of literacy, etc. And throughout, to acknowledge the mysterious Hand of God working through myriad means to build His Kingdom.

Nadya Williams: What was something surprising or unexpected that you learned in the process of working on this book?

Mark W. Graham: This is your hardest question of all, as I learned an awful lot even about things I thought I knew and have taught for years. Perhaps we should add to the old adage, “You never really learn something until you have to teach it” a line like “and you really, really learn something when you decide to write it for public consumption.”

Let me choose two things. The first is the depth of character and scholarship of St. Boniface, “the Apostle to the Germans.” While he is often crassly celebrated today via meme by American “culture warriors” as the guy who took an axe and publicly attacked the sacred Oak of Thor, I am now confident that Boniface would be deeply disheartened that this story is all many people remember about him. Even if some details of the story might be technically true in broad detail, the story is actually far out of character for him and hardly captures the faithful, patient scholar and servant of God who spent decades prayerfully and often fruitlessly studying Scriptures and the Church Fathers, ministering to pagans on the fringes of northern Europe, ultimately dying a martyr’s death while refusing to “Return Evil for Evil” when viciously attacked.

The second is the extent to which the famous educational reformer Alcuin of York promoted at the Emperor Charlemagne’s court what Robert Louis Wilken has entitled “Liberty in the Things of God.” I really was surprised while reading some of Alcuin’s letters to Charlemagne more closely than ever before to see just how bravely and directly he challenged the emperor’s efforts to “convert” pagan or semi-pagan peoples of Europe by sheer political and military force. And he even managed to convince Charlemagne to listen and heed his advice!

Nadya Williams: What are the big questions that fascinate you in your thinking, reading, and writing?

Mark W. Graham: The ones that seem to have most captured my imagination over my career are: How have specific ideas shaped history? How have certain books or texts shaped history? How do our own political identities, dreams, and assumptions shape our own memories of the past? How have apocalyptic dreams molded Christian communities through time?