Life and Practice in the Early Church: A Documentary Reader

by Steve McKinion

A collection of primary texts revealing how early Christians practiced their faithLife and Practice in the Early Church brings together a range of primary texts from the church's first five centuries to demonstrate how early Christians practiced their faith. Rather than focusing on theology, these original documents shed light on how early believers "did church," addressing such practical questions as, how did the church administer baptism? How were sermons delivered? How did the early church carry out its missions endeavors? Early Christian writings reveal a great deal about the tradition, as well as the wider culture in which it developed. Far from being monolithic, the documents which present the voices of the early church fathers in their own words demonstrate variation and diversity regarding how faith was worked out during the patristic period. The texts illuminate who was eligible for baptism, what was expected of worshippers, how the Eucharist was celebrated, and how church offices and their functions were organized. Contextual introductions explain practices and their development for those with little prior knowledge of Christian history or tradition. The pieces included here, all in accessible English translation, represent such sources as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, the Cappadocians, Cyril of Jerusalem, John Chrysostom, and Augustine.

Genres: Christian

201 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Nathan Webb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book on liturgical elements, ordinances, and other aspects of the church throughout early church history. I enjoyed how the author summarized the documents and then shared them to see what the authors believed. Good book if you’re interested in a survey of opinions and practice from common things in the first 400 years of the church. Easy to read too!

[Ron W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

McKinion takes the reader into the early days of the Christian church directly after what is known as the Apostolic Period (the time when the apostles were alive, preached, and wrote texts, such as John, James, and Paul). So, the time period of the texts discussed are within the Patristic Period, the early church fathers. Some of these early fathers also penned letters to the same churches Paul established, such as Corinth and Ephesus. McKinion uses these earliest texts in every chapter to examine earliest practices, such as baptism, communion, worship, and the appointment of church bishops and elders. The reader gets an insight into why the Catholic Church has certain practices to this day.
I found this book a great summary to my many years of study in this topic.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those, like me, who are intimidated by Philip Schaff's multi-volume works on church history and the early creeds, this is a nice summary of early church teachings and practices. Each section starts with Clement and goes up to Augustine. It's interesting to see how most practices started out very simple and got more complex and formal over time. It would have been nice to have chapters on aspects of worship (like singing) and other teachings.