Transcript of CS#97: Steve Weidenkopf Epic A Journey Through Church History

Transcript of Interview with Steve Weidenkopf about Epic: A Journey Through Church History. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com

Listen Now to the audio version of the show.

Epic A Journey Through Church History at The Catholic Company.

http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-books/1111300/Epic–Journey-Through-Church-History/

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Chris Cash: Welcome to Catholic Spotlight. This is the Catholic Spotlight, the show that where we talk about what’s new, cool and exciting in the Catholic marketplace. I’m your host Chris Cash, director of E-Commerce for catholiccompany.com. Your source for all your Catholic needs.

And today in this Spotlight, we have Steve Weidenkopf. Is that correct how I said that just now?

Steve Weidenkopf: That’s correct. You got it.

Chris Cash: All right, good deal. And Steve is co-author along with Alan Schreck, Dr. Alan Schreck that is of the excellent series from Ascension Press, Epic: A Journey through Church History. For all of you out there who are familiar with the great adventure series, Epic is in a sense the extension of the great adventure into the history of the church beyond the end of the Bible. So, this is just an extremely exciting development to see this come about. Can you share with us a little bit about how the idea for Epic came to you and got started?

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, sure, Chris. The idea for Epic really kind of came from my time out in Denver. I spent some time in Denver; I actually worked for the Archdiocese of Denver for Archbishop Chaput, where I was the director for marriage and family life. And a good friend out there Tim Gray was the director of the Catholic biblical school and I knew of the Great Adventure Program through Tim. He helped *** [01:44] with that program. And we were talking one day and Tim said you know, it’ll be great to have a church history program as a kind of follow on to The Great Adventure and you know kind of where The Great Adventure stops with acts and the missionaries activities of St. Paul. You know it would be good to have a Paul Harvey, you know the rest of the story, so to speak to get people you know from Pentecost up to the modern day. That they are just rich tradition and history you know of our church and how it shaped Western Civilization.

So, Tim and I were talking and he said, “You know hey, I really think you have a great love for history and I was teaching some courses for the Catholic Catechetical School out in Denver, one of those was church history. And I’ve had a great love for church history. I had a – in history just a general when I was an undergrad at Syracuse University, I had a – I took a specialized concentration of courses on legal history. I just really love that, I’ve always enjoyed history, so Tim approached me with the idea about well this is a great idea. So, I sat down to come up with a Epic and an outline and how we could actually present this in the same *empiric* [02:59] ideal, the same methodology played by The Great Adventure. So, I came up with a initial outline, you know I presented that to Ascension Press and we got into contact with Dr. Alan Schreck and then he and I collaborated together on the final product.

Chris Cash: Now, this seems like it would be much, much bigger than just a – the rest of the story kind of a deal, because you know you got the outline and what’s in the Bible before The Great Adventure, but when it comes to the Epic product, it is so broad and wide reaching what topics you could cover in the history of the church.

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, that’s true. I mean, you’re right. It is more than just of the story, but it’s – you know the focus and theme we kind of tried to place on Epic is the overall – is to give people the big picture. I mean, it’s the same thing like The Great Adventure. There is so much that you’d get into with the history of the church or even history of the western civilization, there are so many different political or economic or theological you know areas that you can get into. You know its – so it’s the scope, you know trying to come up with a good scope that will help give people that they picture was you know was challenging. But well, we kind of focused on was lets you know use that narrative approach that’s employed by The Great Adventure, basically to help people know their history through story. And so, we focused on what is the – what are the main stories or some very interesting stories that people need to know in order to you know help understand or remember the history of the church. In a particular, we kind of tried to focus on is how it’s illustrating for people, how the church influenced and the shaped and built and sustained western civilization. Because you know its one of the things that I think in our culture today that we’re faced with this identity crises. Now, many people catholic, non-Catholics *alike* [04:38] really have no sense of who we are as a society. You know what – where we came from. We really kind of lost that I think over the last generation or so. And you can see it even more clearly in Europe, Europe really is suffering from the severe identity crises of not knowing who they are, where your roots are, so much so that several years ago you know as I am sure *** [04:59] there is no – that the European union was trying to craft this new constitution for the union. And in the preamble, they couldn’t even bring themselves to mention the word you know Christianity or Christian faith. There were just really those you know elements in European society that were so anti-Christian. They couldn’t even mention the word that formed a foundation of their entire culture and civilization.

So, there is a severe identity crises, so we wanted to try to *write this* 05:28] Epic is to give people in the sense of – first of all, you know *pride in the Catholic Church, but also and understanding who they are. Because learning the history is really learning our family history. Just as we would go and try to study our own you know background or our own genealogies, so to speak. Individually for our families, we do the same thing. That’s really what church history is. We were studying the actions and the events of the – our brothers and sisters in the world who came before us. And so, it’s really our family history, our family story and it’s vitally important for all of us to know that story. Because it shapes who we are and it helps determine where we are going in the future.

Chris Cash: Now, you’ve got the history broken up into time periods just as The Great Adventure does with the Bible. And you have 12, 12 time periods here.

Steve Weidenkopf: 12 time periods.

Chris Cash: What did you use in determining what were the important ways to divide this up?

Steve Weidenkopf: Sure. Yes, what we did is we sat down and note that you know okay we’re going to employ the same methodology, which is very – it’s is been very helpful in improving to be very successful in teaching people scripture, The Great Adventure. And so, they have 12 time periods, we decided to use 12 time periods for *** [06:40] world to keep that kind of consistency and continuity. And so, when we looked at that history at least 2,000 years, from Pentecost to the modern day, you know we could – as we walk through the different events and things we wanted to focus on, it was certain clearly defined time periods came into focus. And we tried to focus them you know dramatically as well, ‘cause it’s a way to help people remember the story the church. So, in each of it you know beginning and end dates for each time period correspond to it, you know certain historical event and is of prime importance.

So a good you know – a good example the first two time periods – the first period is the “mustered seed” and this is the time period obviously when the church is very small, the apostle that small band of brothers is – has been filled with Holy Spirit to go into the *** [07:27] world even beyond to proclaim the gospel and bring people into the church. And so, we start our timeline from the year 33 A.D. from the time of Pentecost and then we take that to the end of – or to the death of the last Apostle St. John around the year a 100. So, our first time period is from 33 to a 100. Next time period is time period for persecution is it when the church is gone out and many people have come in to the church. The church is spreading throughout the Roman Empire, as a result of that they come into contact and clash with the Roman Empire and the *** [08:00] system. There the empire begin a series of persecutions, you know over 250 years of the church. So, our time period of persecution runs from a 100 to the year 313. And the year, we pick the year 313 for the end of that time period, because it’s in the year 313 with the emperor Constantine has issues and proclaimated the – that’s known as the *** [08:23] for he provides toleration before the Christian faith. So, it’s not the legalization of Christian faith. Many people think that Constantine legalized the faith or he legalized it, but rather than many people think that he made it the official religion of the empire. He did not, he allowed paganism to continue. What he did was *** [08:41] one is just to legalize the faith and allowing it to be tolerated openly.

So, and you know a time period of persecution that runs from the death of the last apostle around a 180 up to 313. So each of the time periods, in case you go through they are all, all the beginning and end dates are all fanatically based on an important date or event in the history of the church.

Chris Cash: Now, the first Epic product that you have your covers at least from a sky-high point of view each of these time periods. Are you coming back with additional material in the future that’s going to dive deeper into each of the individual period going forward?

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, we – I like to do that and I think definitely. I mean, the – as you mentioned you know this first Epic product is a 20 week session with 20 parts you know study of church history, and its even with 20 parts, it seems like a long time but its really with the rich *origenism* [09:40] and breath and depth of our history. It’s only really kind of skimming the surface, its only getting you know the big picture represented. So, you know I teach at the Notre Dame graduate school, Christendom College. I teach Church history there. You know I – over 2 semesters is when we covered Church history and that’s 26 weeks and even then, there’s only you know a certain amount of material you can actually present. So, this is even condensed from what you would normally get in 2 semesters of graduate school. But the idea yes is to hopefully in the future we’ll go forward into *** [10:15] down into some of these time periods and do individual maybe you know, 8 to 10 parts studies on of these individual time periods, so that we can get into more detail and present the story and need more focus.

Chris Cash: As you were putting together the outlines here as well as going into the topics were there any really tough decisions about things that you had to cut out?

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, there were. I mean, there were few items that as we went through that we really wanted to try to focus little bit more on and highlight that we realized that just we’re not going to have enough time to really to delve into that. Or it just – it kind of amazes, it didn’t flow naturally with the rest of the product. So, for example on a time period of missionaries and the emperor, we initially in our – on our – on the Epic chart, we – basically, what we’ve done is we’ve identified a 100 main events, individuals or events that one really needs to know the story of those individuals for that event to understand the big of church history. So, those 100 events run you know through 2,000 years of history of our church. And initially, we had much more than a 100, but there – you know we had a – we cut them, we had to cut back in order to not you know over extend the product and to not to overwhelm people. ‘Cause there is a lot of material packed into this study, just even now in its final form that is more into the beginning. But for example in the time period of missionaries and the Emperor, we had to really cut out a whole discussion of Alaric and the Sack of Rome in the 5th century. And you know that was an important event in the history of the church, but in an history of western civilization really. But you know as we looked at some of the other things that we were talking about in that time period really the main theme and main focus of that time period, this is the time period whether the church sends out great missionaries throughout Europe, to bring Europe into the phase. This is actually the fall of the – it is also during the fall of the Western *** [12:17] Empire. So, we – you know and then the emperor, we talk about this time period is *** [12:22] when he comes through the picture and then kind of reconstitutes on a smaller scale of the Roman Empire and begins to enter into a direct relationship with the *PBC** [12:31] Rome and really begin to the flowering out the church throughout Europe. That was – those were our focus, you know it was missionaries and then *** [12:41]. So, any kind of event that did really try too much into those that means we had to cut out. So, that’s what we did Alaric and the Sack of Rome. We still listen to that event on our *** [12:53], we don’t spend time going into that particular story.

So, yes, in other word, there are a few things that we had to cut out. But for the most part we kept it all – we kept you know the major events, the major person, so that people could get that sense of the grand story of our church.

Chris Cash: No, I think one of the biggest challenges in putting together a study like this would have to be making it interesting enough, because you know this isn’t a college class where people are required to sit through it. You got to have the material be interesting enough that people are going to – wants to come back, week after week and listen to the presentation and learn about this stuff, discuss it. Where there any special things that you did to try to make the information really relevant and interesting to people so that they would who wants to come back and hear more?

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes. I mean, what we try to do is was we – you know I present church history from a narrative approach and basically from the position of story. So, that people have a understanding you know that church history is not just as history as a whole really is not just a bland you know kind of boring memorization of dates, events and then personal you know. And that’s what that many people think of when they think of history, because that’s unfortunately now history has been presented to many of us in throughout our education. But it’s just this you know these events and dates from the past, they really have no meaning, no bearing on my life whatsoever, and some – you know many people think of history. So, what I try to do when I teach now at the graduate school, but also when I teach the Epic through this presentation is to present it from the narrative perspective. So, to tell the story. So, when we talk about you know Saint Pope Gregory the Great, you know we talk about who he was and then what were time like in which he lived and what were major achievements and events that he accomplished and why its important for our lives as Catholics to know this great man. And we talk about some of the great Jesuits missionaries in the time period of the Catholic reformation. And we tell their story, you know Saint Isaac Jogues now he came and his companions came to North America and they missioned along the – you know the North Americans here in our own you know area. And we talk about how you can go up to upstate New York and you can see the Shrine of North Americans martyrs and the beautiful Mohawk valley and see where he was murdered.

And so, we present you know history from this story approach that helps people understand the story really – or that history really is you know a great drama. It has all kinds of exciting stories to be told and the – of the men and women who have you know shaped our civilization and spread the gospel from the world, so it’s really something exciting. So, I try to you know when I present I focus on those exciting events and those exciting stories. And you know I also think it comes from the teacher too, that the teacher have a passion for the material and this is exciting to him and to her. Is it something that you know they have incorporated to their lives and it’s meaningful for them. And you know I have a great love, great passion for history, so I try to and do that as I present on history. So, I think that’s its helpful for people as well.

Chris Cash: Okay, well, we’re going to take a short break here to hear from our sponsor but when we come back, we’ll be talking more with Steve Weidenkopf about Epic: The Story of Church History. This is the Catholic Spotlight.

[Break]

Chris Cash: And we’re back on the Catholic Spotlight with Steve Weidenkopf talking Epic: The Journey through Church History. And you know before we get back into the Epic, I just have to mention we are on show 97 today. And so, we’re getting really close to 100 and we are trying to come up with something kind of special to do for show 100. We can’t – we haven’t quite figured it out yet, I guess we are kind of running low on time for figuring that out. But all of you loyal listeners out there be watching because we are intending to do something special for you.

Anyway, Steve, Can you share with us what some of the feedback you’ve gotten from the leaders of this program as well as the participants on just some of the excitements that’s out there about this?

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, sure. You know some of the things that people have said to us is they’re – you know they are – just they are very excited about this product as a whole and in particular you know we’ve heard that men excited about this program. And that’s one of the things that we hope comes out from Epic. One of the effects of it is that is fable to generate more interest from men in growing in their faith and learning their faith. And so, it’s a great program for men’s group. Its – you know parishes that are looking to try to you know help men to become involved in their faith and learn their faith. Epic I think is a great tool for that, because its – you know history men love history, they love math’s, they love great battles, they love you know all those kinds of different stories; you know biographies have great men who’ve done very important things through our history of our church. So, men are very excited product. We heard that and you know I have got around in the country and I have given several one day seminars on Epic to try to – when I come in to a parish and I give a even shorter kind of overview of the history of the church, cover all the time periods, but we don’t focus on every major event or every person obviously, because its time. But in those one day event you know I’ve had people that express great excitement in their – you know very enthused by the product they want to delve in more and take the 20 week, 20 parts studies where they learn more about and through the church.

And so, I think there is a great hunger out there as well you know, people, Catholics are always – you know we hear in our media you know all the time, different events or historical events about and the church was involved and its just really – this represented and is characterized in our media and academia as well. And Catholics *normally* [20:28] know how to respond I think to those events, and social things like the crusades or the acquisition of Galileo. I mean, all these topics we cover in Epic with a – the great you know the great authentic catholic focus. So, we present the authentic story, but from a Catholic world view. So, it’s not one-sided but it’s very balanced. And a question we get most of the time and in our culture today is a – you know bias you know response to those events. So, the other side of the story is not necessarily cool, so people are excited about that. They – you know they come away when they hear me present about the crusades, the flowering I didn’t know, you know people during the crusades, how they actually saw what they were doing was a armed *cover image* [21:16] what you know the media tells us that it was this great global conquest of the holy land and they saw *** [21:23] by the Church. Or you know I had no idea that the reason why Galileo got in trouble with the church with his disobedience and the Pope, *** [21:30] he was instructed not to teach on write on a theory that he kept you know teaching and believing it was true.

So, it was – its very enlightening for people. They really walk away with a, I think a great sense of pride, the authentic pride in our faith in our church, which I think is you know really needed in our day and age. People need to know that the church is – you know it gets beat up an awful lot in our modern culture. But there are many things that we can point to in history of our church which he has done and that many people might not realize. So, when they take an Epic seminar, they take this 20 part of course, they really walk away with the greater understanding of the role the church had played in building up our modern culture and in our modern civilization. And they are filled with a sense of pride for that – with that, and they are giving the tools at which respond is some of the criticisms that our church always receives today.

Chris Cash: Now, if you had to pick one event in church history that was the most significant as far as the church shaping the world or giving a contribution to the world. What would that be?

Steve Weidenkopf: Now, that’s an excellent question. I mean, that’s also really kind of hard to you know down just picking one, one event, ‘cause there is so many to be honest you know in terms of contributions that the church has played a role to society. Well…

Chris Cash: We’ll have to get the study to get number 2 through 20 you know.

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, exactly. You have to you know get the product and delve into more. But you know I think to – let me see, I’m just trying to think – I mean, I think I would pic just kind of – and I’m not *** [23:14] one event, but its one theme. And I think the theme that I was hit is you know just the missionary, that it’s just a faith is a whole. I mean, the church gave the world you know through the sending out of missionaries, the Christian faith. And the Christian faith has shaped you know our entire civilization, our entire culture of the whole world. Now, there is really not too many places in the world where missionaries haven’t gone and that was inspired and began by the church. You know and in Europe, all the things that Europe has gone over the years in terms of contributing to culture such as university education, and universities were founded by Pope or father and founded by the Popes. The church gave us the university education system. You know all the great art in architectural flowering of humanity, the allowing of you know creative mind of man to express himself fully was you know – was brought forward by the church and by the actions of the church. But you know those missionaries who went out into foreign land to places where they didn’t know the language in times – many times to hostile locations to spread the love of you know the gospel and the message to Jesus Christ. And you know its – you know the church continues the missionary efforts, but then even those who broke away from the church you know starting in the 16 century up to our present day, you know they are very involved in missionary efforts, but why? Who said – who gave that standard? Who gave that example of how to go about spreading the faith? It was Catholic Church.

And so, you know the great missionaries during the time period of missionaries, the Emperor Saint Boniface for example.

Steve Weidenkopf: You know all the great art in architectural flowering of humanity, the allowing of you know creative mind of man to express himself fully was you know – was brought forward by the church and by the actions of the church. But you know those missionaries who went out into foreign land to you know places where they didn’t know the language in times – many times to hostile locations to spread the love of you know the gospel and the message of Jesus Christ. And you know its – you know the church continues the missionary efforts, but then even those who broke away from the church you know starting in the 16 century up to our present day, you know they are very involved in missionary efforts, but why? Who said – who gave that standard? Who gave that example of how to go about spreading the faith? It was the Catholic Church.

And so, you know the great missionaries during the time period of missionaries and the Emperor, Saint Boniface for example who missioned to put his now modern day, Germany as well as up with another ones. I mean, he was a great man who left his homeland of England to come to the continent of Europe to go among these German barbarians *** [25:07] many of them were even cannibals and who participated human sacrifice, and he and his companions put their lives in allowing to spread the message of Jesus Christ. Well, in the *** [25:17] in result of that is these Germans are civilized. I mean, that’s the effect of the church’s missionary efforts. It’s the civilizing effect on humanity. So, and I’m not sure I answered your question you know with one particular event, but at least – it’s a thematic answer I think to that.

Chris Cash: Well, of course the other thematic thing that goes along with the civilizing of society is the moral code that permeates most of western culture in terms of the structure of the legal system even.

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes. Exactly. Yes, now you are right. I mean the – you know the moral code it comes from you know a living of life for virtues, if I want to think of them as the teachings of the church. I mean, it’s definitely an aspect of – a very important aspect of you know civilizing effect that the church has in spreading of ever through the work of the missionaries. And you know it’s unfortunately it’s – you know that moral code or that underpinning society as we know in our modern day, you know being attacked on all different levels. So, again, that’s why I think in a product like Epic its extremely important because it provides people with a history of and a background of you know how this came about, how our society was originally structured and even why. And so, when it’s under attack today, we have a better understanding of life support to defend it.

Chris Cash: Well, Steve we’re running little shy on time now. Were there any final things you want to share with our listener’s before we finish up?

Steve Weidenkopf: You know now just a few comments I guess on the – you know why it’s important to study church history. I think, again many people you know history as just as kind of a boring memorizations of names and dates and events that have no bearing on our lives, but really the study of church history is extremely important because it helps us grow closer to Christ that’s you know the foundation of any good catechetical program or any program that is designed to help when we are in faith. But it you know helps us grow closer to Christ by learning our history. It also helps us gain a better understanding in pride in our Catholic church you know what she has done throughout the world and the great – through the great men and women that God has called to participate in his divine drama, the history of the world. And it also you know helps us to understand and the modern day and our own day and age to understand the different you know events in the past and how – what happened in those events and how they influenced today. So, we have a better ability to understand those events that are happening to us today. So, there is one small example of that is the whole struggle against Islam today in terms of you know the terrorism that we are faced with in our society and how that greatly – the attacks of September 11, greatly changed our society and how we view the world. And you know many people were kind of – were shocked and rightly so in those events. But you know when you know your history, you know that the events of September 11 didn’t happen in a vacuum that there were many, many events in previous battles and engagements that Western civilization and even the church has – have engaged in dealing with Islam. And you know it keeps stretching all the way back and beginning of Islam and Islam in the 7th century. So, this is a long ongoing struggle.

So, if you know your history, the events of September 11 and all those happening in our modern world today in that one area, make much more sense. So, knowing our history gives us a sense of the world, the sense of where we’re going, because we know where we’d come. So, and then I just also want to add with, I think earlier we were mentioning, we are talking, you asked me the question about what was difficult to cut out of the program. And I talked about Alaric and the Sack of Rome, and I unfortunately placed Alaric and the Sack of Rome in our conversation in the wrong time period. I talked about it in terms of missionaries and the emperor that actually happened in the time period before conversion and councils. There was one other event in missionaries, the emperors that we did cut out because it was too – it was important, but it didn’t fit into the rest of the story, and that was *** [29:26] first in his restoration in the Roman *** [29:28] the Emperor – Empire. So, I got a little confused on our conversation there and I flipped those two events in the lines, but.

I think that this is a great and exciting product and I’m hopeful that people will get a lot of out it. And we know we’ll the story of the church, be excited about it and be able to study their you know history of their favorites saints, and what is going on in the history of the church when their saint – their favorite saint was alive. And really feel that this is an important study for you know – for the Catholic people. I think that its one in the world. Help them as I mentioned grow closer to Christ and to the church in a time and age when we desperately need to those things.

Chris Cash: And of course, in high school learning names and dates is all well and good, but when it come to on a college or adult on goings formation level, we really have to take the history that we learn and learn from that in a way that it puts us into action to help revitalize the church. We got to learn from some of these saints and martyrs and missionaries and evangelists that we study about and figure out how to go out and re-evangelize some of these areas that they originally came from.

Steve Weidenkopf: Yes, absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly. That’s one of the things that we end with an Epic is you know now that we’ve learned this whole story of our brothers and sisters and the faith they’ve come before us. You know the question now becomes so what is your role. Every person that God creates, you know he creates them before; he gives them a specific task, a specific role that they have to play in his divine drama and his story. And so, that’s you know what is it that you are called to do. So, we ask, invite people at the end of it and the study to pray about that and think about that, and to become active like you said to you know – and becoming active can be simply just you know knowing the story of the church and knowing the teachings of our church so that we can defend upon their attack and we can explain them to others and we can invite into a relationship with Jesus in this church. And that’s you know, we do that one person at a time and if enough people do it, then we can change our society and change our world to be vitalized, the church and our society and so.

Chris Cash: Thank you very much Steve for coming on the show and sharing with us about Epic. All of you who are interested in picking up a copy of Epic, head on over to Catholiccompany.com and check it is an awesome program and I think you definitely want to know more about it. Also, for all you fans of the spotlight go on over to podcast Alley give us some votes, get us up there on the listings, help us out a little bit there. Also give us some positive reviews over on iTunes; it helps to bring in more people to hear about the awesome new things that are out there. And we think all of you listeners out there for listening show 97, be watching for the upcoming events leading up the show 100.

Steve, thank you so much and God bless man.

Steve Weidenkopf: Thank you, Chris. I appreciate the time and bless to you as well.

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Transcript of Interview with Steve Weidenkopf about Epic: A Journey Through Church History. This interview and others like it can be found at http://www.catholicspotlight.com

Listen Now to the audio version of the show.

Epic A Journey Through Church History at The Catholic Company.

http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-books/1111300/Epic–Journey-Through-Church-History/