Walking with the Early Church

The Spirituality of the First Christians

These pages are lecture outlines for a four-week study of early Christian spirituality first presented for the Seekers Class of the First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Georgia in June of 2004. The themes are suggested by Acts 2:42: "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers."
Since each one of these topics could well be expanded almost indefinitely, these outlines will present some details that could not be covered in four hour-long sessions. As the study progresses, these pages will be updated to reflect the insights of the class and the nature of the questions that they have brought to the study.

Also, at the suggestion of Mrs. Joan Godsey, here is a brief reading list for those who want to dig deeper.

RECOMMENDED READING

Primary Sources

(Most of the following contain excellent introductory articles and commentary)

St. Athanasius. On the Incarnation, 2nd ed., with an Introduction by C. S. Lewis (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1953).

St. Cyril of Jerusalem. Lectures on the Christian Sacraments. Ed. F. L. Cross (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977).

Froelich, Karlfried, ed. Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church. Sources of Early Christian Thought (Fortress, 1984).

St. Hippolytus of Rome. The Treatise on the Apostolic Tradition. 2nd rev. ed., corrected. Ed. Gregory Dix and Henry Chadwick (Alban Press, 1992).

St. Irenaeus of Lyons. On the Apostolic Preaching. Tr. John Behr (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997).

Milavec, Aaron, tr. The Didache: Text, Translation, Analysis, and Commentary (Liturgical Press, 2003).

Staniforth, Maxwell, tr. Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers. Penquin Classics (Viking, 1987).

Secondary Sources

Bercot, David W., ed. A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs (Hendrickson, 1998). Basically a topical summary of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. Some of Bercot’s biases show through in terms of what is included and what is not, and the reference system is a pain if you want to look up his quotations in context. Still, it is a helpful source for quick reference.

Dawn, Marva J. Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for the Turn-of-the-Century Culture (Eerdmans, 1995).

________. A Royal “Waste” of Time: The Splendor of Worshiping God and Being Church for the World (Eerdmans, 1999). These two books are more about worship today than anything in the ancient situation, but Dawn is a highly insightful writer about the need to preserve what is best about the Church’s tradition.

DeArteaga, William L. Forgotten Power: The Significance of the Lord’s Supper in Revival (Zondervan, 2002). Also not directly related to the early church. A very important work, however, on how sacramental piety played a much bigger role in the 18th–19th centuryrevivals than is often realized.

Hall, Stuart G., Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church (Eerdmans, 1991). A rather dry read, but a good introduction to the topic.

Hauser, Alan J., and Duane F. Watson, eds. A History of Biblical Interpretation: The Ancient Period (Eerdmans, 2003).

Hinson, E. Glenn. The Early Church: Origins to the Dawn of the Middle Ages (Abingdon, 1996). A very readable introduction to early church history.

Oden, Thomas C. The Rebirth of Orthodoxy: Signs of New Life in Christianity (HarperSanFrancisco, 2003). Why the Church, particularly the mainline denominations, need to reclaim classic consensual orthodoxy. The chapters on Christian-Jewish dialogue, multiculturalism, and the classic ecumenical method of doing theology are worth the price of the book.

Webber, Robert E. Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World (Baker, 1999). Why a return to patristic ways of “doing church” resonates with postmoderns, and how to capitalize on that fact.

________. Journey to Jesus: The Worship, Evangelism, and Nurture Mission of the Church (Abingdon, 2001). The relevance of the ancient catechumenate for doing evangelism in a post-Christian society.

Williams, Daniel H. Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants (Eerdmans, 1999). The subtitle says it all. What do free-church Christians have to learn from the ancient Tradition of the Church?

________, ed. The Free Church and the Early Church: Bridging the Historical and Theological Divide (Eerdmans, 2002). Essays by scholars from various free-church traditions on how to engage the ancient Tradition.

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