The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed! Today Christians around the world are remembering the resurrection of our Savior. If you are celebrating Easter in an English-speaking church (which is likely if you’re reading this blog), there is a good probability that you have sung or will sing the hymn “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today.”

For about 300 years now, this hymn and its variants have been sung in English churches to commemorate and celebrate that Sunday morning about 2000 years ago when Jesus Christ walked out of his tomb, demonstrating that he had forever triumphed over sin and death for both himself and all his people.

The earliest forms of the hymn can be traced back to a Latin text from the 14th century. In 1708 the four Latin stanzas were translated into English and published by J. Walsh in Lyra Davidica under the title “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today.” A few decades later, in 1739, a modified version was published by John and Charles Wesley (Charles is pictured to the right) in Hymns and Sacred Poems under the title “Hymn for Easter Day.” It is this version, later shortened and supplemented with the “Alleluia” refrain, that has become the hymn that remains so popular today.

Here are all 11 stanzas published by the Wesleys. It is worth reading through each one thoughtfully, and perhaps especially the ones that we no longer sing. They are rich with biblical allusion and the wonderful implications of Easter.

1. "Christ the Lord is ris'n to-day,"
Sons of Men and Angels say!
Raise your Joys and Triumphs high,
Sing ye Heav'ns, and Earth reply.

2. Love's Redeeming Work is done,
Fought the Fight, the Battle won,
Lo! our Sun's Eclipse is o'er,
Lo! He sets in Blood no more.

3. Vain the Stone, the Watch, the Seal;
Christ hath burst the Gates of Hell!
Death in vain forbids his Rise:
Christ hath open'd Paradise!

4. Lives again our glorious King,
Where, O Death, is now thy Sting?
Once He died our Souls to save,
Where thy Victory, O Grave?

5. Soar we now, where Christ has led,
Following our Exalted Head,
Made like Him, like Him we rise:
Ours the Cross; the Grave; the Skies.

6. What tho' once we perish'd All,
Partners of our Parent's Fall,
Second Life we All receive,
In our Heav'nly Adam live.

7. Ris'n with Him, we upward move,
Still we seek the Things above,
Still pursue, and kiss the Son,
Seated on his Father's Throne;

8. Scarce on Earth a Thought bestow,
Dead to all we leave below,
Heav'n our Aim, and lov'd Abode,
Hid our Life with Christ in God!

9. Hid; 'till Christ our Life appear,
Glorious in his Members here:
Join'd to Him, we then shall shine
All Immortal, all Divine!

10. Hail the Lord of Earth and Heav'n!
Praise to Thee by both be giv'n:
Thee we greet Triumphant now;
Hail the Resurrection Thou!

11. King of Glory, Soul of Bliss,
Everlasting Life is This,
Thee to know, thy Pow'r to prove,
Thus to sing, and thus to love!

This hymn has not been modernized or recorded with the same frequency as many other favorites. My preferred recording is the one on Hymns Triumphant, still and always my favorite collection of hymns.

Edith Schaeffer (nee Seville) has gone to be with the Lord at the age of 98. She was born on November 3, 1914 in Wenzhou, China, the child of missionaries associated with China Inland Missions. As a young adult she attended Beaver College in Glenside, Pennsylvania and it was there that she met Francis Schaeffer. The two were married in 1935. Francis subsequently attended Westminster Theological Seminary and went on to pastorates in Pennsylvania and Missouri.

In 1948 the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions sent the Schaeffers to Switzerland as missionaries. In 1955, after identifying significant disagreements with IBPFM and subsequently withdrawing from that organization, they decided to simply open up their home and make it available as a place to demonstrate God’s love and provide a forum for discussing God and the meaning of life. They called it L’Abri after the French word for “shelter.” By the mid-1950’s up to 30 people each week were visiting.

Edith had an integral role in maintaining the home and mentoring those who visited. She wrote or co-wrote twenty books, including Affliction, a book on suffering, and the autobiographical The Tapestry: the Life and Times of Francis and Edith Schaeffer, each of which received the Gold Medallion Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (in 1979 and 1982 respectively).

My parents were among the many young people who spent time at L’Abri. I will leave it to my mother to fill in the details.

I think I have told you before of my first encounter with Edith Schaeffer, but I would like to do so again. It was the summer of 1972 and John and I were enroute to Toronto, via Geneva, after several weeks in Florence. We decided to travel into the mountains and visit L'Abri on our way home. We were barely converted, and were already trying to sort out various systems of theology. This seemed a good opportunity to investigate the Reformed alternative.

We traveled up the mountain and got off the bus right in front of the Schaeffers' door. Within a few minutes, Edith had introduced herself to us, and invited us to Sunday lunch. I was amazed that she had time for us, that she truly seemed interested in us in the brief minutes we had with her. But she truly won my heart with the following little incident.

During our time in Florence we had met a young man who had just come from L’Abri. He assured us that Francis Schaeffer had told him confidentially that he did not believe men exercised their will truly and responsibly. God's sovereignty overrode that. I outlined what he had said to Mrs. Schaeffer. She just shook her head, and called upstairs, "Fran, listen to what that dingbat, Bob, told these two." I loved her on the spot. She was real!

Within the next few years I read most of her books and grew to love her more and more. She taught me about the beauty of home and family. She modeled the wonderful and powerful virtues of Christian hospitality. And she was a good theologian in her own right.

I think her "Bird's Eye View of the Bible" is unequalled in its concise and user-friendly presentation of biblical theology. Her longer version of the same, Christianity is Jewish, is one of the most helpful books i have ever read. In other words, she and her husband presented the gospel by starting at the beginning of God's truth—in Genesis—and following the story through to its end (and new beginning) in Revelation. I am convinced that, along with their own winsomeness, that is the reason so many people were converted under their ministry. Did they seek to take captive and destroy worldly intellectual strongholds? Yes, certainly. But always in order to make way for that beautiful gospel she—they—then presented so magnificently and simply.

So, what can I say? I am in her debt now and forever. She was a faithful Mother in Israel and I am one of many rising up and calling her blessed.

If you haven’t ever read a biography of the Schaeffer’s, let me suggest that you do so now. Francis and Edith Schaeffer by L.G. Parkhurst is written for a young audience and is just $3.99 for Kindle; so too is the Bite-Size Biography by Mostyn Roberts. Colin Duriez’s Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life is an excellent longer work.

You can read Frank Schaeffer’s farewell to his mother here.

In this ongoing series of articles we are tracing the history of the Christian faith by pausing to look at 25 objects, 25 historical relics that survive to our day. From the John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester we return to the city of Rome and this time we travel to the Palatine Antiquarium Museum, a museum dedicated to the history of the Palatine Hill. Rome is the city built upon seven hills and the Palatine Hill is at the center of them all, rising up above what remains of the Roman Forum on the one side and the Circus Maximus on the other. It has been the context for many of history’s most significant moments. Some of the museum's exhibitions display models of the early villages that predate the founding of Rome while others hold relics of ancient temples and other buildings that used to adorn the hill. Among the relics, secured high on one wall, is a curious piece of graffiti.

This graffiti, carved into plaster, was discovered in 1857 during archeological excavations and was soon dubbed Alexamenos graffito. It is old and faded and the original design is difficult to discern, yet a careful tracing reveals two roughly-drawn figures and a string of Greek characters. To the left is a man raising his hand in adoration, in worship or prayer. To his side, rising above him, is a second man suspended from a cross. Crucifixions were commonplace in ancient Rome and this man looks like we would expect: his arms are outstretched, pinned to a crossbar, his feet are planted upon a platform, he is wearing some kind of a garment that covers his lower body. What distinguishes him from any other crucified criminal is that while he has the body of a man, he has the head of a donkey. The inscription says, "Alexamenos sebetai theon," "Alexamenos worships his God."

Historians date Alexamenos' graffiti to approximately 200 A.D., making it the earliest surviving depiction of Jesus upon the cross. Yet this is not a religious icon meant to elicit awe or worship. This graffiti is a mockery of Alexamenos, an ancient Christian, and a mockery of a God who would die the shameful death of a criminal.

It was a daring move when, in 1707, Isaac Watts published his first book of hymns. At that time it was the practice of almost every congregation of the Church of England to sing only Old Testament psalms in their public worship. However, Watts had grown to dislike this because it restricted the Christian from being able to explicitly celebrate in song all those aspects of the gospel that are fulfilled and illuminated in the New Testament.

In the preface to Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Watts addresses the worship situation of his time and offers a defense for writing and publishing new music.

Many Ministers and many private Christians have long groaned under this Inconvenience, and have wished rather than attempted a Reformation: At their importunate and repeated Requests I have for some Years past devoted many Hours of leisure to this Service. Far be it from my Thoughts to lay aside the Psalms of David in public Worship; few can pretend so great a Value for them as my self … But it must be acknowledged still, that there are a thousand Lines in it which were not made for a Saint in our Day, to assume as his own; There are also many deficiencies of Light and Glory which our Lord Jesus and his Apostles have supplied in the Writings of the New Testament; and with this Advantage I have composed these spiritual Songs which are now presented to the World.

Within Watts’ book, under the section “Prepared for the Holy Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper” is the first public printing of “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

Concerning the hymn’s creation, there is no special story that singles it from among the many others he wrote. (He is credited with something like 750 hymns.) But what makes the hymn unique is the particular beauty of its language and imagery, and the power with which it highlights the most significant event in human and personal history -- the cross of Jesus Christ our God.

Watts’ giftedness for writing hymns, combined with his courage in publishing them, would eventually turn the tide against singing only psalms and set a new standard for Christian worship in the English language. Today Watts is widely recognized as the “Father of English Hymnody.” “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” is his greatest hymn.

When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

[His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o'er His body on the tree;
Then I am dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.]

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” has been recorded many times and with several different melodies. Ordinary Time has a version you can download for free at NoiseTrade. Page CXVI also has a version available for free in which they include a chorus that has been recently popularized. My favorite version, which is from my favorite hymns collection, can be found on Hymns Triumphant, an amazing choral collection.

In this series we are tracing the history of Christianity in 25 objects, 25 relics of the past that survive today. Having visited the Vatican Museum to look at Augustus of Prima Porta, we travel now to England, to the University of Manchester, to peer at a tiny fragment of papyrus. Carefully encased within a climate-controlled cabinet in the John Rylands Library is Rylands Library Papyrus P⁵², the St. John’s fragment. Measuring only 8.9 by 6 centimeters at its widest points (3.5 by 2.5 inches), this is just the smallest fragment of a long-lost codex. But why would 53 square centimeters of papyrus merit such a display and a position in this list of 25 objects?

Rylands Library Papyrus P⁵² is a fragment of a single page from a codex that once contained the gospel of John. It is the oldest New Testament manuscript ever discovered.

The Christian faith is utterly and unapologetically dependent upon God’s revelation of himself. We believe that the New Testament Scriptures were given by God as he spoke to his apostles and that they faithfully recorded his every word. Some wrote a biography of Jesus or a history of the early church, but most wrote letters directed to a specific audience. It was only natural that after these Scriptures were recorded, they would be shared with others. A young pastor like Timothy, the recipient of two letters from his mentor Paul, would wish to share Paul’s wisdom with other pastors; a church like the one at Ephesus, also the recipient of a letter from Paul, would wish to share that letter with other nearby churches. Those who wanted to know about the life of Jesus would be drawn to the account written by his friend Matthew or the account penned by Luke, the early church’s foremost historian. As the Christian faith grew and spread there was ever-greater demand for copies of the Scriptures. This in turn brought about a proliferation of manuscripts.

Yet with the proliferation of manuscripts came a significant problem. In these years before movable type or photocopiers, every word had to be hand-copied and when the books were copied, differences would inevitably begin to appear. The majority of such changes were unintentional--a skipped letter, a missed word, a repeated line. Some changes were intentional but meant to be helpful. A scribe might substitute an obscure word with a common one or he might add words or phrases he believed would help clarify the text. After the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) became known, scribes might spot the differences between them and attempt to harmonize them by changing the wording of one to match another.

In the church’s earliest days the copies could be verified against the original manuscripts, but over time those originals disappeared so that only the hand-written copies remained. Eventually even those first copies were lost. Of the manuscripts that remain to us today, no two are exactly the same.

How then can we have confidence that the Bible we possess today is the Bible as God inspired and intended it? This is where we are grateful for the discipline of textual criticism. Textual critics are scholars who examine and evaluate all the surviving manuscripts in order to accurately reproduce the original text. And here we begin to see the importance of this little fragment of papyrus encased in glass in John Rylands Library.

I wrote last week of Alister McGrath’s new biography of C.S. Lewis (C. S. Lewis - A Life: Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet). Fifty years after his death, Lewis remains a fascinating, prophetic figure and a much-loved author. His insights into the Bible were often very interesting but it is his insights into human nature that I find even more helpful. At one point McGrath writes about Lewis’ understanding of poetry and here I found truth that is applicable all over the Christian life.

For Lewis, poetry works not by directing attention to the poet, but to what the poet sees: “The poet is not a man who asks me to look at him; he is a man who says ‘look at that’ and points.” The poet is not a “spectacle” to be viewed, but a “set of spectacles” through which things are to be seen. The poet is someone who enables us to see things in a different way, who points out things we otherwise might not notice. Or again, the poet is not someone who is to be looked at, but someone who is to be looked through.

“The poet is not someone who is to be looked at, but someone who is to be looked through.” That is profound. Lewis wanted the poet to disappear behind his words, behind his medium, and to draw attention not to himself but to what was so important to him. It was only the few and the sublime poets who could do this. This truth is pround and applicable far beyond poetry.

The preacher is not someone who is to be looked at, but someone who is to be looked through. The task of the preacher is not to stand before the church and be seen and recognized as a great man or even a great preacher. The task of the preacher is to draw the minds and hearts of his listeners to God. He has failed in his calling is he is looked at instead of looked through.

Sex isn’t selling: This is the headline of an issue of Canadian Business magazine. Of course it’s long been one of the truisms of marketing—sex sells. But this article contends that for the first time in recent memory sex no longer accomplishes what it once did; it no longer piles up the profits.

The focus of the article is pornography and its coming decline. The author contends that pornography has been unable to adapt to the new realities of the Internet, realities that dictate that everything must be free, or at least everything that can be shared in bits and bytes. Porn producers are reporting that they have seen revenue fall 80% from their best days; Playboy is bleeding money and laying off staff; actors who were once paid $2,000 for a single scene are now being offered just half of that; revenue for major distributors has fallen precipitously.

Pornography’s woes can partly be blamed on the economy—when people are in danger of missing a mortgage payment or are out of work, splurging on porn can be a bit of a stretch. But even more so, pornography has been victimized by a cultural shift. “The characteristics that once made sexual content a valuable commodity—the inaccessibility, the taboo—have evaporated.” Cable television is now full of the kind of full-on nudity and sexuality that was once relegated to the porn channels and porn stores. Such a change has been swift. It was not too long ago that a movie like Basic Instinct was considered shocking and edgy; today it would barely make a ripple. “In 1995, Calvin Klein faced an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department on allegations its advertisements constituted child pornography; now, American Apparel can barely draw press coverage by using actual porn stars in porny poses in its ads.” The dirtiness of what made porn enticing, the allure of it, is now fading, lost in the background of a sexualized, pornified culture. This is not to say that people don’t want sex and porn anymore—just that they won’t pay for it and that it won’t compel them to spend money. It’s become a boring kind of addiction or obsession, not a particularly interesting or exciting one.

A third factor cutting into porn’s profits is a simple reality of the Web today, that people want everything to be free and if it isn’t free, they think nothing of taking it. We have grown accustomed to hearing that pornography is a business that grosses $10 billion a year in the United States. Pornographers say this is ridiculous and suggest the actual number could be less than a tenth of that. Not only is pornography widely pirated, but it has also been unable to make the leap to new realities. “Porn has been at the forefront of every modern leap from VCRs to the Internet, but Web 2.0, dominated by these tube and file-sharing sites, is the first technology in a century that pornographers have failed to exploit.” The industry has been forced to react by giving away more content for free and this necessarily cuts into profits. There’s an old saying on the Internet: If you paid for porn, you flunked the Internet. This is more true today than ever. The new reality on the Net is that if it’s not free, people will either ignore it or pirate it. But they won’t pay in sufficient numbers to keep the industry afloat.

This article in Canadian Business suggests that the porn industry is not only in decline, but in danger of imminent collapse and death. Unless it finds a way of reinventing itself, and doing so soon, it will go into eclipse. It is simple economics.

In 1787 Dr. John Rippon published A Selection of Hymns from the Best Authors as a supplement to Isaac Watts’ classic Psalms and Hymns. The book was an immense success. “The remarkable feature of the book,” writes Louis Benson, “is the great number of original hymns secured by him and there first printed.” Among these original hymns was the title “How Firm a Foundation.”

As you can see in this facsimile of the original publication, Rippon attributed the authorship simply to “K----.” He says in the preface that such attributions meant either that the author was unknown or that the hymn had undergone significant revisions for publication.

Later studies have revealed that the “K----” almost certainly referred to R. Keene, who was at one time a song leader in Dr. Rippon’s church and is also known to have authored the hymn’s melody. Apart from this, we have no further information about its writing.

Features

Perhaps the most noteworthy and appreciated feature of this hymn is how closely it resembles the words of the Bible itself (which is fitting, given that its theme is the solidity of the word of God).

Consider, for example, how stanza 2 compares to Philippians 4:12-13:

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Or how stanza 3 echoes Isaiah 41:10:

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

(See also how stanzas 4 and 5 reflect Isaiah 43:2.)

Influence

Since its publication, “How Firm a Foundation” has enjoyed wide acceptance, especially in North America. It is known to have been the favorite hymn of General Robert E. Lee and was sung at his funeral. It is also said that once, while conducting evening prayers in Princeton Seminary’s Oratory, Dr. Charles Hodge was so overcome with feeling during the last line of the hymn (“I’ll never, no never, no never forsake,” from Hebrews 13:5) that he could no longer sing but only gesture the words.

Here are the much-loved words. Note that the second-to-last verse is rarely sung anymore due to its antiquated language. 

How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
You, who unto Jesus for refuge have fled?

In every condition, in sickness, in health;
In poverty's vale, or abounding in wealth;
At home and abroad, on the land, on the sea,
As thy days may demand, shall thy strength ever be.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen and help thee, and cause thee to stand
Upheld by My righteous, omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call thee to go,
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow;
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.

When through fiery trials thy pathways shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine.

Even down to old age all My people shall prove
My sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love;
And when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn,
Like lambs they shall still in My bosom be borne.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose,
I will not, I will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never, no never forsake.

Download It

The band Ordinary Time recently recorded a version of this hymn. I asked if they would be willing to give it away for free (I’m shameless that way) and they generously agreed. You can download it free here. (The site allows you to give a tip but they are very glad for you to simply download it without a tip!)

On the outskirts of ancient Rome stands what remains of the villa owned by Livia Drusilla, wife to Caesar Augustus, Rome's first and greatest Emperor. Though the villa was discovered and explored as far back as the 16th century, serious excavations did not begin until the 1860's. In 1863 these excavations uncovered a remarkable work of art, the statue that would come to be known as Augustus of Prima Porta. Livia kept this marble statue of her husband, itself a copy of a bronze commissioned in 20 B.C. to celebrate Augustus' great triumph over the Parthians. This statue is the first of the twenty-five objects through which we will explore the history of Christianity.

Born Gaius Octavius, Augustus was the great-nephew and eventual heir of Julius Caesar. Following his uncle’s murder, Augustus successfully defeated the assassins and overcame all challenges to power. In 27 B.C. the Senate crowned him Imperator Caesar Divi Filius Augustus--Emperor Caesar Exalted One Son of God. He would rule for over forty years. The great poet Virgil would write of him

Behold the man--the promised one, of whom you know--
Caesar Augustus, son of a god, predestined to rule
And to restore the Golden Age to Latium,
Where Saturn used to rule. His empire will extend
Beyond the Garamants and Indians, over lands
In the far north and south of the stars of the zodiac
And the yearly path of the sun...

Augustus' ascension and the strength of his rule ushered in a time of peace and stability that historians have called the Pax Romana or "Roman Peace." This was Rome's golden age of cultural, scientific and architectural advance. And this, the Pax Romana, provides the context for the dawn of Christian history. So strong was Augustus and so powerful what he set in place that peace would endure for over 200 years despite the weak rulers that would follow.

But the Pax Romana was not a peace for all people. Though Rome had peace from civil war and serious internal challenges, she continued to assert her military might over the known world. Under Julius Caesar Rome had already been dominant in western Europe, but under Augustus her armies extended through eastern Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East. Luke, the church's earliest historian, records that "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered" (Luke 2:1). When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Galilee, he was born into a town and province subject to Rome and her Emperor.

In Augustus of Prima Porta we see this Emperor at the very height of his power. Like today's politicians, Augustus protected his image carefully and used it to convey something of his strength and attributes. Here he is young, athletic, powerful. His face is youthful and handsome, his right arm is raised in an address to his legions, his left leg is bent as he strides forward. This may not be an accurate portrayal of the man as he was, but certainly it is the man as he wished to be revered and remembered.

Under his rule Rome did not only extend her empire but also consolidated and strengthened it. As the Roman armies conquered, officials followed behind to build the infrastructure necessary to support a mighty empire. Ports sprang up around the Mediterranean, the pirates that had once plied the seas were nearly eradicated, bandits and rebels were hunted down, and carefully-constructed roads connected one province to the next so that it could be said, "All roads lead to Rome." These were the ports that would transport the earliest missionaries across peaceful seas and the roads that would allow the spread of Christianity to mimic the conquests of Rome, though where Rome conquered with sword and spear, Christians would conquer with a very different kind of weapon. Augustus even advocated religious tolerance, allowing other faiths to co-exist with Roman polytheism. His Pax Romana provided the infrastructure and stability that would allow the faith to spread far and fast.

Yet in Augustus of Prima Porta we see the roots of the greatest challenge of the church's infancy. At Augustus' right side is Cupid astride a dolphin, reminding his subjects that he, like Julius Caesar before him, is descended from the Venus, the goddess of love. His bare feet both symbolize and declare his divinity, for where a mere man goes to war wearing boots, a god strides into battle barefoot. Augustus is not only a mighty Emperor, but a son of the gods.

I have long had a love of history and so often find in the past the wisdom that informs and addresses present difficulties. Each generation--even each generation of Christians--suffers from self-obsession, and as we move forward in time and progress, we do well to keep one eye on the past, to consider not only where we wish to go, but also from whence we have come. Christianity has a long and storied past that testifies constantly to God’s enduring grace. We ignore it at our peril.

Though so much of Christian history has passed away, though so many of its people and objects have been lost to time, a few precious relics remain. When we look at these objects with careful eye, when we consider them in their context, we see in them the history of the Christian faith. In this new series of articles I have chosen twenty-five of these objects and through them wish to explore the history of this faith we hold so dear, the history of what God is accomplishing in this world, whether through princes or peasants, whether through triumph or trial.

Each of these objects offers us a tangible link between the present and the past, between the Christians of the twenty-first century and the Christians who lived and died in centuries past. In a few cases these objects are hidden away or in private collections, but more commonly they are there for all who wish to see them. We can travel to museums and galleries, look at these objects, and see in them a link to history--our history. This, then, is the history of Christianity in twenty-five objects.

The series will begin with the earliest relics of the earliest Christians and carry us to the present day. As we journey through the history of the church we will look at the importance of a peculiar little scrawl of graffiti and the creedal significance of an otherwise unremarkable carving. We will take a leap forward in time to consider the long labor of monks and the martyrdom of Christians who called for reform long before Luther. We will look at pulpits and paintings and posters and even pieces of machinery. And, of course, we will look to books and the remains of books, for perhaps nothing has so charted and maintained the course of Christian history as its books.

We will begin with a statue that represents the context in which the church was birthed through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In this statue we see the promise of the spread of the gospel and we see a shadow of its most fearsome opposition.

Allow me a word about the format of this series. I intend to write one article on each of the twenty-five objects I have identified, with the first article coming tomorrow and one following every week or two as I am able to complete the research. I chose these objects with the assistance of a long list of books. I subsequently shared the collection with several professors of church history who have kindly offered helpful feedback. I write this series not as an expert on church history but as a student, eager to learn and eager to share what I have discovered.