Ignorance

JoEtta says that it's presumptuous of me to say that no good history of the Churches of Christ exists. She points out that there are a number of good articles on the subject--and I'm sure she's right. What I meant was more like...a biography of the Church.

I still haven't found one of those, but I've found a number of books that look like good places to start--including (duh) the works of Alexander Campbell himself.

I think I was also reacting to the culture of willful ignorance of our roots that seems to pervade our church. Why that? Jo says that she hadn't really thought about all this until grad school, and she's surprised that I'm thinking of it now. I guess that's a point, but she grew up in the church. I'm a newbie still, and I'm used to asking questions like, "Why doesn't our auditorium have windows? Why don't we use instruments?" etc. "Why don't we talk about our history?" seemed to fit logically in that pattern.

Another thing I'm wondering about lately is the "Church of Christ--Emergent" movement. They have a stub on wikipedia which seems to connect them to the Church of Christ as I know it, but I don't know if that's a real connection or what. A lot of these churches have different names and don't call themselves "Church of Christ" at all. None of the websites referenced from the wikipedia seem to have a FAQ--this is where we're coming from, this is who we are. Still...the conversation they seem to be inviting is an interesting one. Is it time for a re-restoration? Have we become as traditional as the denominations our founders were reacting against?