If you had to select 33 objects throughout history to represent the birth, growth, and effectiveness of Christianity, what would you choose to best reflect God’s enduring grace through the centuries? And what narrative would you write that would weave them all together in telling the story of what God is accomplishing in the world? Tangible relics such as these offer rich links of understanding between Christians of the first and 21st centuries.
Bible Gateway interviewed Tim Challies (@challies) about his book, Epic: An Around-the-World Journey Through Christian History (Zondervan, 2020).
Why did you have the need to experience Christian history in a tactile way?
Tim Challies: I wouldn’t say it was a need as much as a desire which gave birth to an opportunity. I had experienced history in the history books, but was eager to increase my access to it through the senses. Not only that, but I was eager to access it within its context. It’s one thing to read about George Muller’s Bible, but another thing to sit at his desk, hold it in my hands, and read the words of his handwritten marginalia. Similarly, there’s something about seeing the first known depiction of Jesus in Rome, on the Palatine Hill, right where it was first drawn and where it was discovered.
Why did you select 33 objects as epoch markers in Christian history and no more or less? And what criteria did you use to choose them?
Tim Challies: As you might imagine, I had initially drawn up a list that included far more than 33! The publisher had initially asked me to stick to 25. But as I scoured the world and attempted to tell the broad strokes of the history of a 2000-year-old faith, I couldn’t possibly go less than 33. So there’s no great significance to the number beyond it being the minimum I could let myself get away with.
[Read the Bible Gateway Blog post, Visual Theology: An Interview with Tim Challies]
What message are you communicating with the word Epic as the book’s title?
Tim Challies: It actually has a double meaning. First, an epic is an expansive story that describes the life of a great figure. In this way, Epic tells the story of the church of Jesus Christ—the greatest story ever told. Second, epic means huge or grand. And in that sense, the story the book tells is epic and, so, too, is the journey I made to tell it.
Why do you begin the book with the statue Augustus of Prima Porta? And what is its significance?
Tim Challies: I begin with Augustus of Prima Porta because it’s the best-known and best-made image of Caesar Augustus, who was the Roman Emperor when Jesus was born. Not only that, but he was also the man who, through his policies, created the context in which Jesus lived and died and in which the early church was born. Particularly, he was the architect of the pax Romana, or Roman peace, which provided the infrastructure and stability in which the good news of the gospel was able to spread quickly from Jerusalem to the rest of the Empire and beyond.
Several objects you sought out are related to Scripture, such as Book of Kells, the Gutenberg Bible, Erasmus’ New Testament, and King James Bible. Briefly tell how these reflect (or caused) the establishment of Christianity worldwide.
Tim Challies: As you might expect, I saw and held many Bibles over the course of my journey. In fact, I could’ve based the entire project around Bibles—the history of Christianity in 33 Bibles! Each of the ones that made its way into the book has some special significance. The Book of Kells tells us how the Bible survived for so many years as Jerome’s Vulgate, the Gutenberg Bible presages the rise of the printing press and the sudden mass availability of Scripture. Then Erasmus’s New Testament tells how the text of Scripture was “recovered” from the weaknesses of the Vulgate while the King James Bible was, and in some cases still is, the Bible in the English language. Each of them has profound significance in the history of our faith.
How do you think Bible Gateway, the original multi-language internet Bible now more than 25 years old and the world’s most visited Christian website, fits in with the Scriptural narrative of Christian history you write about?
Tim Challies: It’s a great question and is perhaps a little too soon to answer definitively. We often need a little time to gain a right perspective. But I expect we’ll see that the widespread, digital availability of the Bible through Bible Gateway and other platforms allows more Bible-reading to happen than at any other time. We have easy, immediate, and unlimited access now to the Word of God and to many wonderful explanatory resources. The question is, are we taking advantage of this great feast?
What do you write about Billy Graham’s traveling pulpit in the book?
Tim Challies: There was an era in Christianity, an era that seems to have largely diminished or even ended for now, in which the Lord seems to have particularly used evangelists and crusades to call people to faith in Christ Jesus. The chief of the crusaders was, of course, Billy Graham. His pulpit is in a museum in his honor at Wheaton College [the second pulpit is in the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, NC] and seems to nicely stand-in to remind us of the incredible impact he had and the countless thousands who responded to the gospel through his preaching. And he’d be the first to say, I’m sure, that this incredible response had nothing to do with him and everything to do with the good and sovereign will of God.
What object that you encountered in your pilgrimage did the most to rivet your faith in Jesus Christ?
Tim Challies: The one I keep going back to is Amy Carmichael’s Bible. There was something so sweet and so moving about holding her Bible—the one that had been such a treasure to her and such a comfort in her afflictions. I got to read her notes and imagine her ministering and serving in India, yet always seeking out and relying on the good and precious Word of God. May I have an equal commitment to the Word!
Epic: An Around-the-World Journey Through Christian History is published by HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc., the parent company of Bible Gateway.
Bio: A pastor, noted speaker, and author of numerous articles, Tim Challies is a pioneer in the Christian blogosphere. More than 30,000 people visit Challies.com each day, making it one of the most widely read and recognized Christian blogs in the world. Tim is the author of several books, including Visual Theology: Seeing and Understanding the Truth About God and The Next Story. He and his family reside near Toronto, Ontario.
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The post Christian History Told Through 33 Objects: An Interview with Tim Challies appeared first on Bible Gateway Blog.
