Why Study Church History?

This week on Cultivate, Charlie and Abigail kick off a brand new series on church history — starting with the most important question: why should anyone bother studying it at all? Charlie makes the case in three parts. First, church history helps you think beyond yourself — you are not studying the Bible in a vacuum, and you have been shaped by 2,000 years of Christian thought whether you know it or not. Second, it shows you what the church has believed everywhere, always — the anchor points that have remained constant across centuries, cultures, and radically different circumstances. Third, and maybe most importantly, it helps you recognize that most "new" theological ideas aren't new at all. They're ancient heresies getting a fresh coat of paint and a soothing TikTok voice. Abigail brings her history minor background and a love of bottom-up history — the idea that you can understand a society better through its fairy tales than its official records. She also makes the case that what looks like a new question almost always has a very old answer.