What we are about

We are about reversing chronological snobbery in churches (especially evangelical) one early church quote at a time.

What is Chronological Snobbery?

As Americans (especially young ones), we have become the poster children for newness. When a building is old, we don't renovate it; we tear it down and replace it. When the new, cutting-edge tech devices release, we don't savor the old technology; we toss it in the trash. When the next social cause or movement arises, we are the first to jump on and off the bandwagon in due time.

Let's face it: We are fickle. And if we know this about ourselves, we must admit it also affects the way we do church. We see old as bad, and new as good. We respect the new forms of worship, the new ideas and new methods of doing church, but we have little interest in the beautiful, ancient forms of worship from our church history.

C.S Lewis, confessing guilt in his own attitude, calls this approach “chronological snobbery.” Chronological snobbery can be loosely defined as the erroneous argument that the thinking, art or science of an earlier time is inherently inferior when compared to that of the present, based solely on its age. This chronological snobbery results in the absence of critical thinking toward anything new, and the automatic rejection of anything old, even though it might be applicable and needed for today.

We still see this in the worship and thought of many contemporary churches. In the process of staying current, and in reaction to traditionalism, we have thrown out all the richness of church history.

We will play a popular radio hit in a worship service, but avoid hymns, psalms and ancient prayers.

We will give people a cup of coffee as they walk in, but skip the grace of frequent communion.

We will show people a trendy graphic, but avoid the beauty of the church's historical art of liturgy.

We will quote business gurus and pop artists, but avoid the rich theology of the church fathers.

We will develop our own statements of belief, but avoid the unity of ancient creeds and confessions.

The grace of frequent communion, the beauty of liturgy, the unity of creeds, the reverence of ancient patterns of worship and the richness of historical theology are all neglected, replaced with new art, new ideas and new songs.

The hope is that this blog will start a conversation back towards some of the more historic ways of Christianity, from the wisdom of the early church.