Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
— George Santayana

While it’s not likely that Santayana and I hold the same religious beliefs, his ideas about history do resonate with me. In my pursuit of my degree in Church Ministries from Global University, I am taking a history class called The Church: Pentecost to the Reformation. It is a really cool class that dives into what happened after the Apostles founded the church all the way up to the Protestant Reformation.

While many of you reading this right now may not be big history buffs, it’s still important to recognize that we must learn from our history. And in the church there are lots of issues that we experience today that many who have gone before us have already dealt with.

The essays and perspectives that I’m sharing here are part of an assignment that I’m doing for the class, and they are not intended to be complete, in-depth studies on the people and ideas that I am presenting. In this assignment I have the opportunity to share three short summaries:

• Six Prominent Heresies
• Seven Major Christian Leaders
• Rapid Growth of Christianity

I’d love to have some more in-depth discussions on some of these people and ideas, so please feel free to give these essays a look and let me know what other ideas and/or questions you have.