W. Robert Godfrey

And that will be the somewhat more theological side of what we're going to do.

Because as we go along, I want us always to remember that while theology is important, and I only say that because R.C.

Sproul may be listening.

I actually do believe that.

While theology is important, it's not everything.

And so when we study history, we shouldn't just study historical theology, but we ought to try to see that theology in historical context.

Why did people care about theology?

What institutions did theology lead to?

What institutions produced theology?

What were the great figures that thought theologically, and what influenced them in the ways they thought?

How did theology actually trickle down to the churches?

You know, if the Lord tarries another thousand years and archaeologists find books by R.C.

Sproul, hopefully they won't need to be archaeologists that find them, but if someone finds books by R.C.

Sproul, how much will books by R.C.

Sproul tell people in a thousand years about the state of the American church in the early 21st century?

We wish those books would tell us more about the reality of church life in America than in fact they would.

So there's always a divide between good theology in a period and what actually gets down to the people.

That's part of what we want to look at as well.

So we want to look at church history that I'm going to be talking about largely under the topic church and society, and then I want to look at paths to God, that is theology, and how people tried to think through how they are going to be related to God.

So, that's how we're going to be proceeding.