We romanticize the past. We tend to view historical events and periods through the lens of nostalgia and sentimentality. With this thought in mind, I am tempted to idealize the early church in my quest to find old prayers. My overly optimistic view of the early church does not square with the biblical record. The New Testament letters chronicle a considerable amount of church conflicts and doctrinal divisions.
Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714) was a history professor who espoused the view that the early church before Constantine represented the gold standard in church history. His disenchantment with the Lutheran church in Germany, of which he was a member, dissuaded him from entering the pastorate. In his role as a tutor and teacher, he unleashed a critical attack on his contemporaries with the presumptuous title, An Impartial History of the Church and all Heresies. Surely, attempts by his critics to label him a heretic for his pietist sympathies had something to do with it. He accused Lutheran colleagues of being more interested in carefully honed theological formulations than following Jesus. He called their scathing critiques of suspect groups “heresy making.” He recognized the danger in allowing the importance of dogma (meaning teaching) to degenerate into dogmatism. Gottfried mellowed in his later years. He broke a celibate vow when he married Anne in 1701. Any hopes among his radical Pietist friends that his marriage was purely spiritual were laid to rest when their daughter was born a year later. He also eventuated into a settled ministry as pastor of an established Lutheran church until his death.
What is the takeaway here? An increasing number of Christians in our day are distancing themselves from the established church. Why would anyone want to be associated with an imperfect church? Could it have something to do with us being imperfect people? I commend to you Gottfried’s prayer in times of anxiety and danger: