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I so need to read Weber...
Interesting post, roachboy. As it turns out, I enjoy a certain sort of historicizing. Viewing the history of the Church as the interaction of various nexuses of power, the attempts to legitimize/de-legitimize opposing viewpoints, etc., can be very interesting, and even profitable, and even profitable from a Christian viewpoint. But, of course, there are two caveats. One is that I believe that God is with his church, and so the outcome is, shall we say, 'influenced' by him. He ensures that his church does not go too far astray for very long. The other is that I object to two sorts of historicizing; two moves made by an examination of the history of the church.
One is the one you mention -- the attempt to legitmize one's own standpoint by claiming to have 'rediscovered' the true apostolic church over and against all the history that has come between then and now. True, the apostolic church and its practices as described in scripture are of supreme importance, and it's an ideal we should always strive for. But the Christian faith is a tradition, and it's at the very least dangerous to ignore 1800 years of that tradition.
The second is the Hegelian historicizing, a type of 'whiggish' history. The idea of these thinkers is that the church has always been in development, and we (in Hegels case, German Protestantism) have achieved the highest level of development. The most odious of these sorts of thinkers think that we have surpassed 'faith' and moved on into a realm of reason, where the historical truths of Christianity are removed for a more 'rational' faith. I'm with Kierkegaard here (and generally, for that matter). You can't move beyond faith; faith is the achievement of a lifetime, and few people even become "Knights of Faith". It's a task every generation, every person has to begin anew.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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