Study Questions

Turning Points by Mark Noll (3rd Edition)

Robert H. Lackie

In the introduction to Turning Points, the author establishes four critical reasons why the study of church history benefits the contemporary Christian:

  1. The study of the history of Christianity provides an ongoing reminder that the God of the church is not removed from life, but works out his will in the history of the world.
  2. The study of church history provides perspective on the interpretation of Scripture.
  3. The study of the church gives us fascinating glimpses into the ways Christians have interacted with their culture.
  4. The study of the church reveals again and again how God has mercifully protected and increased his church despite the sometimes horrendous abuses of those who call themselves Christians.

These benefits are magnified when individual students of church history meet together and share this book. As an adult education director in my church of some five hundred members, I can testify to the rich treasure Turning Points has been to me and to the participants in my class. As we began using the book shortly after its publication, I sent back glowing reports to the author (via email) and urged him to release a study guide to the book. One must be careful what one asks for, as the author responded by asking me to do it. We discussed the prospect of my writing study questions for the book, and so here they are.

I am privileged to have an opportunity to “piggyback” on Turning Points with these study aids. The intent of the questions is to provide classes or discussion groups with thought-provoking questions that can help the group take full advantage of what Turning Points has to offer.

The questions are presented in two ways. Following this introduction are Overview Questions that cover the entire scope of the book and the history of Christianity in general. The reader might want to think of these as “bird’s-eye view” questions. The author has presented the basis for some of these in his introduction, where he establishes God’s purposes for the church in the final verses of Matthew’s Gospel.

These overarching questions can and should be addressed as an individual reader or discussion group reads through the book. It might be cumbersome to review them after every chapter, but readers will get a reminder before chapter 6 and chapter 13 in the question section below to revisit them. The answers readers give to these questions may change as they dig deeper into the book. The intent of these questions is to challenge the reader to sit back and ponder the broader implications of what is being read in a given chapter and to synthesize the succeeding chapters. With these questions I hope to remind the reader that each chapter of the book is a part of the same story: the story of the body of Christ on earth.

The second kind of study questions, Application for Today’s Church, can help readers probe deeper into the issues raised in those pages. The questions challenge readers to specifically relate the chapter’s content to the contemporary world.

My hope is that these study questions will give the readers impetus to dig deeper into the study of the church, to seek a fuller understanding of God as he has revealed his purposes in history, and, as a result, to come to love him more deeply.

Robert H. Lackie

Overview Questions

  1. What is the church? Develop a working definition as you begin reading the book. Revisit the question as you progress through the chapters.
  2. How do you see God working within the context of various cultures throughout the history of Christianity? How is this different from how he works in our culture and in individual people’s lives today?
  3. The author presents four guiding principles to help us see God working in the history of Christianity. They are:

–  “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” God is sovereign in all, including all experiences and events that affect his church.

–  “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations.” The church continually experiences movement outward to spread the gospel and movement inward to learn more fully of Christ.

–  “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Despite sins and failings, the church is sustained by Christ’s promised presence.

–  “You will be my witnesses . . .to the ends of the earth.” The Christian faith enters into and impacts many cultures and the people who inhabit them; the gospel belongs to all cultures.

Reflect on how any or all of the “turning points” in the book demonstrate these principles.

  1. What limitations hamper our study of the history of Christianity in terms of our sources of information?
  2. What are the primary sources historians rely on for the various episodes presented in Turning Points? What is missing from our view of the episodes as a result of only having the documents we currently possess?
  3. Discuss the role of reformers throughout the history of Christianity. How far should they go to achieve needed reform when it threatens the unity of the church? At what point must reformers move outside the established church? What dangers have resulted from reform movements that break with the church?
  4. What perspective does the author bring to the material in Turning Points? What factors might play a role in coloring his view?
  5. What perspectives of our own play a role in the way we study the history of Christianity? If we think of our individual biases and perspectives as filters through which we view history, what are these filters? How do they help or hinder our study?

Chapter 1

  1. How did the early church at the time of the fall of Jerusalem perceive its relationship to Judaism?
  2. What problems faced the Christian church after Jerusalem’s fall and the break with Judaism that resulted?
  3. What would the church eventually develop to define itself after the break with Judaism?
  4. What problems do historians face when they try to study the subapostolic period? How do the historians’ perspectives of the Christian faith complicate these problems?
  5. How do non-Christian historians differ from Christian historians in their interpretations of this period and the critical documents that developed?
  6. How do the denominational perspectives and backgrounds of Christian historians tend to color their perceptions of this period and the critical documents that developed?
  7. What forces were at work in the development of the canon of Scripture?
  8. Discuss the criteria that were considered authoritative for the New Testament writings, thus assuring those writings a place in the canon.
  9. Describe the progression of church order (episcopacy) from the more fluid leadership structure found in the New Testament to the time of Cyprian of Carthage. What accounts for this gradual transition?
  10. Compare the original purpose of the early creeds with the role they played later in the history of the church.

Application for Today’s Church

  1. Given the seemingly chaotic events that occurred within the Christian church as a result of the fall of Jerusalem, and the way God used those events to strengthen the church, are there modern-day examples of disruption in your local church or the church at large that God has used for great gain?
  2. What are some tangible reminders of the church’s Jewish heritage in your local church today?
  3. How do our roots in Judaism, in terms of values, perspectives, and practices, still impact our faith as Christians?
  4. Which of the three contributions from this early period—the canon, the creeds, or church order—has the biggest impact on your local church? What about the church at large today?

Chapter 2

  1. What did the Roman emperor Constantine hope to accomplish by convening the council, both politically and for the church?
  2. Describe the central theological issue at stake at the Council of Nicaea. Why was it so important for the church at that time?
  3. Discuss the theological position Arius held and promoted. What role did the high value placed on reason play in Arius’s position, and how did that impact the popularity of Arianism?
  4. How did Arius support his views from Scripture?
  5. What became Athanasius’s key theological argument in support of the orthodox view? How did his argument help explain the nature and person of Jesus Christ?
  6. How did the worship of the church tend to support the orthodox view?
  7. Discuss how the Nicene Creed specifically addressed and opposed the theological position of Arius.
  8. What were the key implications for the church-state relationship of Arius’s and the orthodox views?

Application for Today’s Church

  1. Discuss how your church would receive Arius. What kinds of people would be attracted to his perspective?
  2. What influences in your culture impact the fundamental theology concerning the nature of God and Jesus Christ? Which do you consider the most dangerous to orthodoxy?
  3. Discuss why the Nicene Creed has stood the test of time as such a pivotal expression of faith. What is it about this expression that has remained so close to the center of Christian faith and worship?
  4. Discuss whether a standard for orthodoxy exists in the church today. If so, what is its basis of authority? How does our definition of the church affect our answer to this?

Chapter 3

  1. As the title of this chapter suggests, the opposing sides of the critical issues leading up to the 451 council had more at odds than just theology. What other forces were at work polarizing the different points of view?
  2. What does the earlier Council of Ephesus in 431 tell us about the temperaments of the opposing sides at that point in time?
  3. We begin to see in this chapter some growing cultural differences between the churches of East and West. What kinds of differences marked the two regions in their approach to theology?
  4. Discuss the central theological issue at stake at the Council of Chalcedon.
  5. Discuss how Word-flesh Christology explained the nature and person of Christ, as this perspective was developed by Apollinaris, Cyril, Eutyches, and others.
  6. Discuss how Word-man Christology explained the nature and person of Christ, as this perspective was developed by Nestorius, Flavian, and others.
  7. Discuss how Pope Leo’s Tome addressed the opposing perspectives. What role would the Tome play at the Council of Chalcedon?
  8. How did current political changes impact the calling of the Council at Chalcedon?
  9. How does the christological controversy demonstrate Christianity’s ability to make a successful “translation” from its Semitic roots to the Hellenistic language and culture?

Application for Today’s Church

  1. Discuss how the contemporary church—and individual believers—benefit today from the outcome of the Council of Chalcedon.
  2. As the author explained, both the Antiochene and Alexandrian points of view provoke their own misrepresentations of Christ when taken to their extremes. Discuss these extremes and how Christians today sometimes can still encounter them when trying to explain the person of Jesus.
  3. Reflect on whether you tend to lean toward one perspective more than another. If so, is that leaning a reflection of your church’s teaching, your background, personal understanding, or other factors?

Chapter 4

  1. Discuss how the church’s political success in the fourth century became its greatest weakness, from the perspective of monasticism.
  2. What potential dangers could arise from the division between monastics and other Christians?
  3. What were Benedict’s motives—as far as we know—for entering a life of monasticism? For writing the Rule?
  4. What did the monastic life offer that was lacking elsewhere?
  5. How did Benedict establish controls against the potential abuses of monasticism?
  6. Discuss the impact that monasticism’s “inner motivations” had on the church at large.
  7. What were some of the philosophical influences on the development of monasticism?
  8. What could monastic life offer women that was not generally available to them elsewhere?

Application for Today’s Church

  1. What is the legacy that monasticism has left to the church today? Try to name all of the fruits of monasticism that have benefited the church down through the centuries up until today.
  2. Having read this chapter, discuss the ways you have been most significantly blessed by the legacy of monasticism.
  3. Discuss the cycle of monastic renewal to decay to renewal. What tended to cause these alternating phases? How is the same cycle apparent in the church at large, at the local level, and in the life of the believer?
  4. The monastic movement was one expression of Christ’s directive to be “in the world but not of it.” Discuss other movements throughout the history of Christianity that took different approaches to this challenge.
  5. The author states that monasticism was the most important institution established by the church since Christ’s commissioning of his disciples. Determine whether you agree with this statement.

Chapter 5

  1. Discuss the significant events that had a key role in strengthening the role of the papacy.
  2. Was it the historical events of their day or the personalities of the early popes that most increased their influence and power?
  3. What caused the bishop of Rome, as opposed to the ones in Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, or other key cities, to gain such influence? What events might have ended differently if the seat of ecclesiastical power had been in the East?
  4. What characteristics of the influential popes like Leo and Gregory brought the most positive good to the life of the church?
  5. Discuss the ways the spread of Islam changed the growth and character of the church in the seventh and eighth centuries. How might Christianity have looked different by the year 800 if Islam had never spread into the Mediterranean?
  6. Define “Christendom.” Discuss how it shaped medieval Europe’s outlook on everyday life, including politics, social conduct, and economic conduct, and how they related to the church.
  7. Sacramental theology evolved throughout the Middle Ages. What was at the core of this way of thinking?
  8. Christendom created a delicate balance of power between the church and the state. Discuss ways in which it could be abused by either side.
  9. What sources do we have for discerning the life of the church in the Middle Ages? How do our sources limit what we know? What gaps are there?

Application for Today’s Church

  1. Are remnants of Christendom still apparent in our culture today? If so, what are they? If not, what has taken its place?
  2. How does a sacramental perspective on the Christian faith help a believer follow God better? What possible pitfalls are there?

Chapter 6

Note to Readers: In addition to the questions listed below, readers are encouraged after finishing chapter 6 to give consideration to the Overview Questions listed on pages 330-31.