by Martyn Whittock, Christian Today
The writer of the Letter to the Hebrews reminds Christians that they are surrounded by a great “cloud of witnesses.” (NRSV) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this monthly column we will be thinking about some of the people and events, over the past 2000 years, that have helped make up this “cloud.” People and events that have helped build the community of the Christian Church as it exists today.
It is a frequent feature of Christian history that believers seek to understand their contemporary world by drawing parallels with biblical history. This can lead to some very ‘creative’ (and selective) interactions with the Bible; usually with Old Testament events. One remarkable example led to the creation of the figure of (King) Arthur.
In the centuries following the collapse of Roman rule in Britain, in the early 5th century, native British writers struggled to explain the catastrophe. They faced some difficult questions. Why had once-Roman Britain fragmented? Why had pagan Germanic-speaking peoples (Anglo-Saxons or Early English) come to dominate much of the (once-Christian) eastern and southern parts of the island? And what did this mean for the native Britons, who were the ancestors of the medieval Welsh? Early medieval authors answered these questions as much through theology as through military and social reflection. Arguably more so. History, they believed, revealed the will of God and they sought to interpret events by comparison with a biblical framework.