Lecture 36: The Ever-adapting Religion
fresh translations of the Bible and the establishment of Christian
institutions in distant lands.• Between the 16th and 20th centuries, therefore, Christianity became
a truly “world religion,” with adherents in every land and language.
o As it expanded, Christianity was increasingly required to
engage questions of cultural diversity. Such questions, in
turn, raised concerns about the possibility of compromising
Christianity’s identity or the use of the Christian mission as an
instrument of European cultural hegemony.o These questions remain open, even as Christianity faces more
severe challenges that have been posed by modernity. Perhaps
the greatest challenge of all, in light of the greatest part of
Christian history, is this: How would Christianity deal with the
end of the Constantinian era, when the church was decisively
severed from its role as glue to the state if not society and when
the state could once again even be hostile to this religion?The Limits of Historical Knowing
• It is important to recognize that this “grand historical narrative” also
misses a great deal of “what really happened” in the Christian past.
As we noted in the first lecture of this course, there are intrinsic
limits to our historical knowing.• Our ability to talk about this religion as a historical entity depends
a great deal on Christianity’s involvement in the political order,
precisely because it is in the realm of the political that chronology,
documentation, and major events are most in evidence.• When Christianity has lacked clear political involvement or when
historical evidence is not available, little can be said about the
religion in those times or places.• There is every reason to believe, however, that Christianity thrived
at the level of peoples’ lives, even when little or nothing of historical
significant rose to the level of analysis.