EPIC by Tim Challies (FAN AND FLAME Book Reviews)
Tim Challies, Epic: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2020), pp. 176.
The potency of words tends to decrease over time. Take the word “love” for instance. Broad application has cheapened the word. Do we really love our spouse and Netflix? I hope we don’t love each in the same way.
The same degrading has happened to the word “epic.” Can both nachos and Niagara Falls be epic?
As I followed Tim Challies on social media over the last couple of years, I would say that we could legitimately use the word epic to describe his travels. He toured South Korea one week, blogged from his home in Canada the next, interviewed pastors in Africa the following week, and then was back in Canada for church on Sunday. At least that’s what it seemed like, and this adventure went on for months and months. I only casually followed his travel schedule via his Instagram posts, so I didn’t know why he was traveling so much. Now I do. And I’m thankful for all his hard work.
Tim Challies is the author of several books, co-founder of the publishing company Cruciform Press, and an influential Christian blogger. For months he traveled back and forth to every continent except Antarctica for his latest book project Epic: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History. The book releases today, along with the documentary about his travels.
33 Faith-Building Reminders from Around-the-World
Epic tells the story of the spread of Christianity from the early church to the present day. But the method Challies uses to tell the story is novel. He doesn’t give readers the typical recounting of history through people and places. Instead, by visiting, photographing, and in many cases holding thirty-three different objects from Christian history, Challies narrates the expansion of the gospel. The story begins with a statue of Augustus Caesar and ends with the YouVersion Bible app, that is, the story moves from the world of the Roman Empire to the world wide web.
In seminary I took several graduate-level classes in church history, so I was already familiar with many of the stories told in the book, such as the broad outline of John Calvin’s life or the thousands who flocked to hear George Whitefield’s open-air preaching. But using specific objects to tell these same stories added freshness. Looking at Calvin’s chair—the chair he sat in for hours and hours as he prepared his many sermons, books, and commentaries—or seeing the rock upon which Whitefield stood to preach, somehow made these men more life-sized in a good way, a relatable way.
Challies does not only roll the highlight reel of Christian history; he covers lowlights too. For example, he writes about a Reformation-era indulgence box displayed in a museum in Wittenberg, Germany. The indulgence box resembles what John Tetzel would have used while raising money for the Pope with the jingle often attributed to him: “When a penny in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs” (p. 51). Challies writes, “The coins that slid through the slot and into the coffer represented a gospel of salvation by works, a gospel foreign to the Bible, a false gospel.” But it was from this lowlight that God birthed the Reformation, the recovery of the biblical gospel, the good news of salvation by faith alone through Christ alone.
Sample of the book’s layout (from Amazon website).
Zondervan did an excellent job designing the book. I appreciate the colorful but simple layout, which complements the accessible writing. My middle school daughter spent time reading the book when it first arrived. Later, I read my eleven-year-old son the story of ancient graffiti that mocked an early Christian named Alexamenos (chapter 3), a great story by the way. If Challies ever writes a sequel, perhaps he’d consider making it more of a prequel: the roots of Christianity in the history of the Old Testament.
Two Helpful Takeaways from EPIC
As I read Epic, two takeaways hit me, one takeaway Challies highlights in the book and another that came from reading the book in our present crisis.
First, a beautiful disconnect exists between the simplicity of many of the objects and their significance. A simple chair for Calvin to write, a simple organ for Wesley to compose hymns, a simple reading stand for Edwards to study, and a simple rock for Whitefield to preach. “Whitefield Rock, though it is but a slab of stone in an open field,” Challies writes, “reminded me that God does not need great buildings, the beautiful churches and cathedrals of Christendom. All God needs to carry out his work is a faithful believer who will faithfully preach his gospel” (p. 97).
Second, it was an odd but beautiful blessing to read a church history book as the coronavirus stalks the globe and kills thousands of people and infects a million more. Church history reminds me that God’s people have been through long and hard times, and that God’s glory often shines brightest across a dark background. Challies brought out this truth well when discussing the persecution of the church. The most moving story in the book for me was about Marie Durand, who was imprisoned in France as a young woman and released decades later. She carved into a stone the word French word for “resist” as an encouragement to her and the other imprisoned women to resist recanting their Christian faith. I tend to forget these stories. But I need the reminders, not merely to know facts about dead people from faraway places but for the vibrant awareness of God’s faithfulness that I need to live for God in our day. The “great cloud of witnesses” that the author of Hebrews mentions has only grown over time (Hebrews 12:1).
I mentioned above that words and phrases have a tendency to become diluted over time, like the words “love” and “epic.” In a similar way, book reviewers tend to overuse and cheapen the phrase “highly recommend.” But I do highly recommend the book Epic. Here I stand and can do no other.
* Picture of Rylands Manuscript P52, which Challies talks about in Chapter 2 (Photo from Wikipedia).