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.” (NRSVA) That “cloud” has continued to grow in size since then. In this 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.
Every nation has its ‘deep story,’ the way that it consciously and unconsciously draws on its history (and its imagined history) to define its modern identity. None more so than the English. Today, the idea of what it means to be ‘English’ lies behind much of the heated and contested conversation in England about its character and its place within the UK. What is often overlooked is the origin of ‘Englishness’ and the way that the Christian Church largely invented the label as part of the conversion of the early Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
The English in the popular imagination
We often take for granted the existence of a place called ‘England’ and a community of those living there to be ‘English’.
Most people imagine this was because the English (ie the Anglo-Saxons) were a recognisable ethnic group who left northwestern Europe to seize land at the end of Roman Britain in the 5th century; drove out the British (Celtic) inhabitants during the ‘Dark Age’ wars of the 6th century; and created a community that we can call ‘England’ by the middle of the 7th century. Hence references in popular culture to modern people being ‘Anglo-Saxon’ (ie ‘English’), even ‘pure Anglo-Saxon.’
However, things were more complex and the implications of this are very significant. They are still relevant today in debates over national identity.