I’m reading Christian history in my email every morning these days.
The email comes from Christian History Institute. Dan Graves writes the main story and a timeline of significant events for the day.
I’m writing this on June 17, 2025. Here’s today’s email.
The lead story is 457 words long.
(The June 17 story is about Count von Zinzendorf–whom Lettie Cowman quoted in Streams in the Desert, January 1.)
The story is followed by ten facts (usually deaths) that occurred on June 17. (Or whatever day you read it.)
Fascinating.
Who writes Christian history each day?
Dan Graves has written stories for the Christian History Institute since 1996, or for 29 years.
I’ve been reading the daily stories for six months.
Curious about where the Christian history information came from, I interviewed Graves–on June 17!
What are some of the most surprising stories you’ve heard?
“I still marvel at Rubruk’s 13th-century visit to the Khan (May 7). And Bar Sauma’s similar trip westward from China (March 28).”
And why not? Look at this map of Rubruk’s travels from the University of Washington:
Why do you think learning about Christian history is important to the everyday person who isn’t interested in history?
The church is Christ working in people, so their stories matter.
Others’ lives, whether long ago or in other countries, open a window onto the richness of human experience. [They also demonstrate] God’s dealings with our kind—[which is] surely worth contemplating.
History shows us that no one tradition of Christianity has a lock on God’s blessing. He’s used people of all sorts of backgrounds. Church history forces us out of our silos. . . . A people without a past can hardly be called a people.
Where do the stories come from?
Graves has a Master’s degree in Library Science and has read Christian history since his childhood in Papua New Guinea. (His parents were missionaries.)
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was the first book he read about the history of Christian persecution. It includes biographies of the martyrs. “For the first time, I realized being a Christian is serious business.”
(He noted his grandmother sent him a copy of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Graves sat up all night reading by a kerosene lamp. He slept a few hours, rose, and reread the whole book the next day!)
Like any good researcher, while reading about one person, he often discovers another interesting character.
He investigates that person’s role in Christian history, then discovers another.
Graves also keeps an eye out for the dates events took place.
“Deaths seem to be the most-recorded dates,” Graves said. “So I try to get as eclectic a range of non-deaths as I can find.”
While reading Spiritual Lives of the Great Composers, he recently discovered that Edward Elgar was a devout Christian.
“I’ll probably write a story about him,” in the future.
Christian History is at the heart of faith
As Graves explained:
“Christians have a historical religion, based on actual events in an actual time and place. Our creed recognizes this when it says of Christ, ‘who suffered under Pontius Pilate.’
“Also, most ‘modern’ heresies about Christ are actually recycled and have already been refuted by the church. Why reinvent the wheel?
“When we see how intently Christians believed and what they suffered for that belief, it’s hard to brush off Christianity as a fairy tale. (Many people find the religion of Communism hard to dismiss for the same reason. Read the story of Mao’s Great March.)”
(Or, see my blog posts here: Jesus Life Under Communism, or Persecuted, yet Jesus is Always with Believers.)
Personal Benefits for Graves–and others
I asked Graves about the stories’ effects on him, personally. Or, if he ever double-checked the unusual ones.
(Some of these stories, particularly from the early centuries of Christian history, are hard to believe).
“They sustain my zeal and encourage me. Paton having the contents of chamber pots thrown on him, or Charles Simeon locked out of his own church, make my problems seem small.
“Cannibals could not turn Paton from his Mission on Tanna.”
Charles Simeon Shouted “Hallelujah!” and Became a Powerful Educator.
But he also appreciated how “real” Christian saints are–they’re not just pictures on the wall.
“When I see Christians having fun (as Moody and James Chalmers did), or working hard to fulfill mundane needs (as Bob Pierce did), I am reminded of the importance of the entire human.
The Chalmers Arrived at Rarotonga Aboard a Pirate Ship.
Tweetables
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