“Redemption: The Church in Ancient Times” by Luke Herron Davis

My knowledge of church history was spotty – at best – for a very long time. My grade school and undergraduate education was almost entirely secular. I took two years of catechism (Lutheran version), and in my 20s took several extension courses about the Old and New Testaments. But if you asked me what I knew about the history of the early church before my mid-30s, I would have given you a timeline that leaped from the book of Acts to St. Augustine, and from St. Augustine to the Reformation.  

That state of affairs changed, dramatically, when I pursued a liberal arts master’s degree in my mid-30s. I took course like “Athens or Jerusalem,” “History of the Early Christian Church,” and “The Image of Rome.” I read the early church fathers, like Origen, Athanasius, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. I read Peter Brown’s marvelous biography of Augustine. I read the Didache. And the Desert Fathers (and a few Desert Mothers). I read Kenneth Scott Latourette’s A History of Christianity (two fat volumes) and The Rise of Christianity by W.H.C. Frend. And a whole lot more. 

 

And I learned that the Christian church had an unbelievably rich, complex, and often profound history. And I realized how much of that history had been erased from so many of my history courses in high school and college. And I’ve often wondered how one could introduce that history to children and young people.

 

Luke Herron Davis has an answer – a series on church history written especially for younger readers. The first volume in that series is Redemption: The Church in Ancient Times. And far from being a weighty tome that could be a weapon if thrown at someone, it’s short, readable, interesting, and tells engaging stories taken straight from the Gospels and the Book of Acts as well as other sources of early church history.

 

Davis tells the story of the church by telling the stories of some of its leading historical figures from the first through the sixth centuries A.D. Each entry is 10 to 12 pages, written in story format – enough to impart important information about each figure and whet the appetite for more.

 

The people included are Peter, Paul, Ignatius, Polycarp, Cyprian, Constantine, Athanasius, Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Jerome, Augustine, and Patrick. Many others are mentioned in side notes (including one of my favorite figures, Tertullian). Each chapter is written like a story, bringing a freshness and a contemporary feel. The reader feels an integral part of what’s happening. 

 

It's an easy, interesting read, and I suspect that even adults would enjoy it (and learn a few things).

 

Luke Herron Davis

Davis teaches at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis and chairs the Bible Department there. He’s also taught at schools in Louisiana, Florida, and Virginia. He describes himself as “Presbyterian body, Lutheran heart, Anglican blood, Orthodox spirit,” all of which have served him well in writing the Cameron Ballack mysteries. He has published three Ballack mysteries, Litany of Secrets (2013), The Broken Cross (2015), and A Shattered Peace (2017), and the first book of a new series, Joel: The Merivalkan Chronicles Book 1 (2017). He blogs at For Grace and Kingdom.

 

Redemption is not written to be a complete, encyclopedic overview of church history. What it does is, aiming at young readers, provide an introduction to some of the leading figures of early church history, the people who evangelized, taught, encouraged, and admonished, and who often had the specter of martyrdom hanging over them (like Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was himself discipled by the Apostle John). These are the people who faithfully transmitted the faith to future generations, and Davis is providing a real service in introducing them in such an engaging way to contemporary readers.

 

Next week: Reign: The Church in the Middle Ages.

 

Related:

 

Reading a Novel that Stars Your Hometown.

 

My review of Litany of Secrets.

 

My review of The Broken Cross.

 

My review of A Shattered Peace.

 

My review of Tough Issues, True Hope by Luke Davis.

Top illustration: a representation of the burning of Polycarp of Smyrna (168 A.D.), drawn by Jan Luyken in 1685.

The plan

After Ephesians 1:1-14

It was a plan,

it is a plan

for the fullness

of time. Envisioned

and created before

time, it had an aim,

a purpose, a means

and an end: unity,

oneness, union

of all things,

things in heaven,

things on earth.

It’s all rather

stunning, when

you consider it:

a plan for all time,

created before time

began, a plan 

to unify all things.

Photograph by Eleventh Wave via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Nothing separates

After Romans 8:31-39

Hearing the call, and

responding to the call,

they gathered together.

And once gathered,

nothing could separate

them from the caller.

A whole litany of foes –

disease, war, famine,

poverty, upheaval – 

stood silent, mute,

unable to divide

and conquer. Nothing

separates the called,

nothing separates

the gathered, from

the Caller. From

the Gatherer. 

Nothing prevails

against them,

because of who

the Caller is.

Photograph by Hannah Valentine via Unsplash. Used with permission.

It's over and done

After Romans 8:31-39

It’s over and done,

this battle, this war,

it’s over and done

before it even begins.

The forces are arrayed 

so unequally:

on one side, God;

on the other,

it doesn’t matter.

And his people 

as well, those he

called and those

he gathered, so, too,

do they stand

undefeated and

unaccused, because

the accusations

and the charges

and the crimes 

have been paid for,

atoned.

Photograph by Nghia Le via Unsplash. Used with permission.

There's a process

After Romans 8:26-30

There’s a process involved,

even if we think it’s all

spontaneity. It begins

with weakness, ours;

weakness so profound

that we’re at a loss

to know even what

to pray for.

But then, and next, 

the groaning,

the groaning too deep

for words, the sign

of intercession,

of help, the sound

of wind and fire

searching, seeking,

ferreting out

the hearts of weakness.

And so: our prayers are made.

And so: our prayers are heard.

Photograph by Suzanne Williams via Unsplash. Used with permission.

We groan

After Romans 8:12-25

We groan within,

a racking of the soul, 

a piercing of the heart,

a stifled scream, for

what we know is

coming, the changes

promised, a new heaven

and a new earth,

a new father and

a new body,

a realization of hope

for the unseen, a hope

promised and anticipated,

a hope enshrouded

with patience. That is

what we groan for.

Photograph by Camila Quintero Franco via Unsplash. Used with permission.

What is to come

After Romans 8:12-25

What we have now

cannot be compared

to what is to come.

From its deepest soul,

creation groans

in anticipation

of what will be.

Creation aches 

to be set free

from its bondage

to the darkness,

to the corruption

to enslavement.

The groans are those

of childbirth, intense,

increasing in power

and frequency, a wave

heralding what

is to come.

Photograph by Kyle Cottrell via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A child

After Romans 8:12-25

A child, abandoned,

alone, is found and

touched, claimed,

adopted to become

a son, a son

who cries father

with assurance,

knowing he belongs

now, and because

of this, he’s an heir,

guaranteed a place

with fellow heirs,

able to claim

what is promised,

an inheritance of life,

an inheritance of suffering,

an inheritance of glory.

Photograph by Max Goncharov via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Set free

After Romans 8:1-11

We’re set free

from the law,

the law of death,

to embrace

the law of life,

the spirit of life,

We’re set free from

the law of death,

the law of sin

and death.

A substitution

was made, 

a sacrifice

acceptable,

fulfilling what

the law required,

and liberating from

the penalty required.

It’s that simple.

It’s that monumental.

Photograph by Junior Moran via Unsplash. Used with permission.

The resistance

After Romans 7:7-25

A war rages.

On one side:

what it is

we’re supposed

to do, to believe.

On the other:

what our hearts,

our minds, our souls,

want to do instead.

There’s a sense, 

inborn, of what 

is right. There’s

a sense, inborn,

of what we want

to do instead.

It’s a war

we cannot win

without help.

It’s the war

Of already

not yet.

We cannot win

on our own,

no matter

how great

the desire.

Photograph by British Library via Unsplash, Used with permission.

What was isn't now

After Romans 6:1-14

The old is gone, not

merely cast aside,

but taken,

a violent act, and

nailed to a tree

of all things, and

there to die

in the only way

it could, With

it gone now, 

the new remains,

a sprouting seed,

set free to grow,

set free from the old,

the old left lifeless,

powerless, forgotten,

absolved.

Photograph by Dietmar Becker via Unsplash, Used with permission.

We were works

After Genesis 3:17-15 and I John 3:1-10

We were works of before,

changed, in a moment,

into works of now.

We were fields of before,

fallow, then sown, the seed

now sprouting within us.

We were wind of before,

blowing aimlessly, now

with purpose and direction.

We were water of before,

polluted, until freshened,

cleansed, and purified.

We were works of darkness,

transformed, into works

of light, unshaded.

Photograph by Kyle Glenn via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A symmetry

After Romans 5:12-21

There’s a kind

of symmetry

to it all, that sin

was transmitted

through one man,

one act bringing

condemnation

and death,

and

redemption was

achieved through

one man,

one act,

bringing

justification and

life.

Photograph by Greg Jeanneau via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Genetic inheritance

After Romans 5:12-21

Genetics are, or can be,

destiny, giving us height

and hair color, eye color,

skin color, ear size,

foot size, and, often,

health or aspects of it.

Strings of DNA twist

down generations, twist

down time, certain

combinations never

letting go, never

disappearing, tagging

along generation after

generation, replicating

and never weakening,

never disappearing, more

than a parasite, part of 

the genetic core.

Genetics is destiny, 

the guilt of birth broken

only by the gene-changer

nailed to a tree.

Photograph by Hal Gatewood via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Sounds in the well

After Romans 8:26-28

A well of darkness,

cold, the only company

a shaking, shivering.

The voice rises through

the stones, winds echoing

off each other before

vanishing in the darkness

above.

The walls tremble, not

in anticipation but 

in the sounds reverberating,

an intercession unexpected

and undeserved, a groaning

so deep that it pounds

the ears, the hearing

realizing the meaning,

realizing that the intercession

is a gift, a provision of grace,

a provision planned and saved.

Photograph by Maria Krasnova via Unsplash. Used with permission.

"When Winter Breaks Softly" by Jim Burnett

Jim Burnett has written a considerable number of novels set in the Old West, and now he’s published a collection of short stories, also set in the Old West and with a strong theme of faith. When Winter Breaks Softy includes five stories that are simple and straightforward tales of good, evil, and redemption.

In “Blind Love,” a young couple have struggled for years to have a family. When a baby finally does come, their joy is cut short when they learn their little boy is blind. Not helping at all is the young woman’s mother, who’s constantly criticizing and belittling her daughter.

“Fiona’s Redemption” is a kind of Hatfield-McCoy or Romeo and Juliet kind of story. Two families have hated each other for a long time, and one family in particular has more than its fair share of bad men and bullies. Fiona Darcy finds herself attacked and raped by Clay Miller, an attack that leads to the birth of a child. It will be another Miller, however, who will fall in love with Fiona.

Jim Burnett

In “Fit to be Tied,” the Jackson family has four boys until the birth of their daughter Annabelle. They live on a big ranch in Wyoming, and as Annabelle grows up, she takes special delight in aggravating Danny Elder, the son of the ranch foreman. They always seem at odds, until an abandoned calf changes their lives.

“Maria’s Stubborn Love” is set in Texas. Maria Sanchez and her mother work at the Lazy D Ranch, where they are both the occasional object of ridicule by the ranch hands because of their Mexican heritage. But the son of the ranch owner will discover a very different kind of relationship with the beautiful girl.

“The Man Behind the Hammer” is Jess Slade, who once had been a farmer but had turned to blacksmithing after the accidental deaths of his wife and young son in a wagon crash. He’s never gotten over their deaths, and he seems to take his anger and guilt out on the iron and meatal he’s pounding in the shop. But Sarah Jane Nickels, the daughter of a cattle buyer and entrepreneur, has set her sights on the blacksmith. 

The stories of When Winter Breaks Softly seem a bit old-fashioned, but that’s what gives them their charm. Good and evil are clearly drawn, and broken people find redemption and love.

“Something Better” by Dustin Renz

Tom Schneider’s life is a mess. His wife Julie has left him, taking their 4-year-old daughter Kayla and moved in with her mother. He’s sinking deeper into depression. And he’s still trying to escape the years of physical abuse he and his mother endured at the ends of his father.

Tom is one big mess of anger, hurt, and depression. He’s got a single lifeline – the desire to be reunited with his family. But that looks increasingly impossible. Then a letter from his father arrives, asking to see him. Instead, Tom flies from Michigan to his boyhood home near Atlanta, and a slow process of forgiveness and reconciliation begins. But will it last?

Something Better by Dustin Renz is the story of Tom Schneider, but it could be the story of many of us. It’s about the damage that happens in families continuing down through the generations. It’s about the struggle to hold a failing marriage together. It’s about learning to forgive and learning to be forgiven. And it’s a story about how a young man comes to faith, and how his faith changes him before it begins to change his life and the people around him.

Dustin Renz

It’s also the story of any of us caught in a web of the past and our own mistakes, problems, and sins.

Renz is the Associate and Outreach Pastor at the Kettering Assembly of God in Kettering, Ohio, the founder of Make Way Ministries, and a contributing writer and speaker for Pure Life Ministries in Dry Ridge, Kentucky. He is also the author of Pile of Masks: Exposing Christian Hypocrisy (2016). Renz received a B.S. degree in church ministries from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He and his family live in Dayton, Ohio. 

Using an alternating series of flashbacks and contemporary scenes, Something Better points toward how each of us can, well, find something better in faith.

Top photograph by Eric Ward via Unsplash. Used with permission.