Connecting Past and Present

As assistant professor of church history, Nathan Feldmeth believes passionately that the past holds relevance for today. “We need to know our story—the story of faith. As we face the challenges of being faithful Christians, we gain real help from the examples of those who have ‘finished the course and kept the faith,’” he says. “I see the lives of our spiritual ancestors as a part of the ‘great cloud of witnesses’ spoken of in Hebrews 13.” Dr. Feldmeth first came to Fuller to work with one of those “witnesses,” in fact: the renowned church historian and esteemed faculty member Geoffrey W. Bromiley, a man “who profoundly influenced the direction my life and work would take,” says Feldmeth.

Feldmeth’s love for church history began in his own seminary years, when a professor sparked his interest through “combining scholarship and a marvelous narrative approach to the story of the Church.” Today, Feldmeth’s special areas of focus include the history of exegetical method in early Tudor England, the tensions between Christian theology and modern science, and the Anglo-Saxon Church.

Along with his teaching and research, Feldmeth actively works to “make superb training for Christian ministry available to the many students who want a Fuller degree but cannot move to Pasadena.” He has authored a course on Early Church History for Fuller's Individualized Distance Learning Program and presently serves as the director of faculty development for Fuller’s regional campuses across the country. He has also taken his teaching to a number of churches in the Southern California area, currently offering a “taste of Fuller” in the form of a lecture from his Christianity and Science in Historical Perspective course on the life, theories, and faith of Charles Darwin.

Dr. Feldmeth’s latest publication, Pocket Dictionary of Church History  (IVP Academic, 2008), will be released soon in Russia, having been translated into the Russian language.