麻豆视频

Abstracts from Dr.听John Coakley’s lectures:

The Underwood Symposium, Seoul, 2022
鈥淪eeking a Fresh Encounter with the History of Christianity”

About The Lecturer

John W. Coakley is the L. Russell Feakes Professor of Church History, Emeritus, at 麻豆视频 in New Jersey, U.S.A., where he taught for thirty-two years before his retirement in 2016. 听 He received his academic degrees听 from Wesleyan University (A.B.) and Harvard Divinity School (M.Div., Th. D.).听 Before beginning his teaching career at New Brunswick, he served as a pastor for ten years听 in Congregational churches.听 He is a General Synod Professor, Emeritus, in the Reformed Church in America.听 As a scholar of the history of Christianity, he has specialized in the study of medieval spirituality, but has maintained wider interests as well, reflecting the scope of his teaching, which has extended to the whole of Christian history. 听 His publications include听 Women, Men, and Spiritual Power:听 Female Saints and Their Male Collaborators (New York:听 Columbia University Press, 2006), 麻豆视频:听 An Illustrated History 1784-1014 (Grand Rapids:听 Eerdmans, 2014),听 Readings in World Christian History:听 Earliest Christianity to 1453 [with A. Sterk] (Maryknoll, New York:听 Orbis Books, 2004),听 and many scholarly articles, including 鈥淭he Seminary Years of the Missionaries Horace G. Underwood and Henry G. Appenzeller, in Korea Presbyterian Journal of Theology 47 (2015): 59-82, which originated as one of the lectures at the Underwood Symposium of 2015.听 听

Lecture I:听 鈥淭he Whole Story鈥�

The first lecture poses the problem of conceptualizing听 a听 鈥渕etahistory鈥� of Christianity, that is, a comprehensive narrative of the Christian movement over time.听 In Europe and North America, until recently, historians tended to work from an implicit metanarrative that听 traced the听 Christian movement from its origins in the Mediterranean basin to Western Europe and then to North America, considering other manifestations of Christianity as peripheral to that main narrative.听 But by the late twentieth century,听 critiques of that approach, and indeed of the possibility of any such overarching narrative of Christian history, were mounted, for example in the proposal of the scholar Dale Irvin that the history of Christianity should be written not as a single narrative听 but as many distinct narratives 鈥� as, in effect,听 the histories of Christianities.听 The remainder of this听 lecture explores the work of听 two scholars听 who have laid a foundation for reclaiming a metanarrative without allowing any strain of it to obscure the others:听 Lamin Sanneh and Andrew Walls.听 听 Key to the work of both is the insight that Christianity is by its very nature, beginning with听 the early church鈥檚 spread into Greco-Roman culture, a translated听 religion which, unlike Islam, 听 takes root in new settings听 specifically by communicating its message in the cultural idiom of those who will hear it.听 听 This is a principle听 that, on cues听 from Walls in particular, might serve to shape a metanarrative of Christian history that does not run the risk of making one culture-bound tradition into听 the norm for the others, in three ways: 听 first, by听 connecting Christian history to the Christian message itself, in the doctrine of the Incarnation, understood as a translation of God鈥檚 very self into human form and consequently God鈥檚 entry into the particularities of culture;听 second,听 by highlighting and helping to explain听 the 鈥渟erial鈥� nature of the history of Christianity, whereby it typically rises and declines in given settings in consequence of its success or failure in the continuing task of cultural translation; and third, by focusing attention on the tension within every given听 form of Christianity, between its own encounter with its culture and its critical assimilation of an 鈥渁doptive past鈥� of the history of other Christians, as a universalizing factor in its identity.

Lecture II: 鈥淟颈蹿别-厂迟辞谤颈别蝉鈥�

The second lecture discusses听 two evolving听 themes in Christian biography in the Western Middle Ages.听 Framing these in pedagogical terms as an exercise in encountering the past through forming a critical personal relationship with it, the lecture听 illustrates, in medieval examples,听 the phenomenon of the translation of Christian faith in cultural terms that the first lecture treated in a more general way. The听 first theme is that of听 鈥渃onstancy and conversion.鈥� 听 Here the starting point is the classic biography of the ascetical but socially active bishop Martin of Tours, written around 400 A.D., which, in contrast to many biblical stories, but in continuity with Greco-Roman biographical听 traditions, pictures its hero as 鈥渃onstant,鈥� i.e., unchanging, in virtue, but it听 also,听 in discontinuity with those traditions,听 introduces Christ as a presence throughout the hero鈥檚 life, adopting a narrative structure that includes a new transcendent dimension.听 Then toward听 the end of the Middle Ages, in 1228, an equally famous early biography of Francis of Assisi models Francis听 on the figure of Martin in his social activity and his asceticism and retains听 the presence of Christ in the narrative, but pictures Francis now as a repentant sinner, thus abandoning the Greco-Roman ideal of constancy for an interest in the inner life of the individual that was consistent with trends in late-medieval culture that anticipated the Renaissance.听 听 The second theme is that of听 鈥済ender and authority.鈥� Here at issue is the biographical representation of women.听 Once again, we see early Christian biography making听 use of earlier Greco-Roman literary conventions:听 the examples are听 the second-century 鈥淎cts鈥� of Thecla, a听 fictional female听 disciple of St. Paul, and, though in a more ambiguous way, 听 the third-century martyrdom account of Perpetua of Carthage.听 The biographers present these women as听 essentially male听 in their听 virtue, strength听 and authority,听 drawing on the idea found in Plato and other ancient Greco-Roman听 philosophers that听 construed men as superior to women and imagined a perfected woman therefore as becoming, in effect, a man.听 And a late medieval example shows the abandoning of that Greco-Roman听 idea:听 this is the thirteenth-century biography of Mary of Oignies, in which virtuous behavior of a woman is presented as distinctively female, reflecting and complementing听 certain cultural developments of the time, including the assertion of a uniformly male ecclesiastical authority by the so-called Gregorian Reform movement, and, once again, the interest in the interior life of individuals, which听 would shortly come to fruition in the Renaissance. 听 听

The conclusion of the lecture alludes to the evident relevance of these themes for our own lives and situations, but also to their strangeness to us insofar as they reflect听 their own cultural contexts; and it suggests that our encounter with the Christian past is a matter of keeping these two aspects of the Christian past in tension with each other. 听

Lecture III:听 鈥滱 Western Narrative鈥�

The third lecture examines some roots of the modern Protestant world mission movement, taking the American pastor and theologian John Henry Livingston as a representative figure.听 听 Livingston, who received his theological education in the Netherlands, was a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in New York City, and in 1796 became one听 of the founders of the New-York Missionary Society.听 His approach to missions was shaped by the ideas of the so-called听 Enlightenment, in its moderate Christian form, with an emphasis on Christian faith as consistent with reason and as in fundamental harmony with the notions of freedom given expression in the American Revolution.听 听 These ideas in turn had roots听 in the long history of Western Christianity 鈥� that is, in听 the particular 鈥渢ranslated鈥� form of Christianity听 that had taken distinctive shape in the Middle Ages and had undergone a major turning听 point at the beginning of the modern era, in a cultural shift that had favored ideas placing听 human beings听 at the center of the cosmos.听 The conclusion of the lecture comments once again on the double way in which we encounter historic听 Christianity听 鈥� that is, how听 we find ourselves both embracing it and holding it at a distance, as, in this case, in the spirit of Walls鈥檚 notion of the critical acceptance of an 鈥渁doptive history,鈥�听 we may听 affirm the centrality of the church鈥檚 call to mission, and admire those who followed it in their own place and time, even as we may not share the culturally rooted assumptions听 on which they did so.听 听