Worship in the early church / Justo L. Gonzalez, Catherine Gunsalus Gonzalez. [print]

Includes Index.

Judeo-Christianity : -- 1. The background: Jewish worship -- 2. Jewish and Judeo-Christian worship -- 3. The Judeo-Christian message -- 4. The Christian calendar -- 5. From conversion to baptism -- 6. Communion -- From 100 to 313 CE : -- 7. New circumstances -- 8. Preaching -- 9. Baptism -- Communion -- 10. Times, places, and practices -- From Constantine to the invasions : -- 12. New circumstances -- 13. Preaching -- 14. Surrounding baptism -- 15. Surrounding communion -- 16. Times, places, and practices -- After the invasions : -- 17. A new era -- 18.Epilogue: today's worship between yesterday and tomorrow.

While many histories of Christian worship exist, this project undertakes a task both more focused and more urgent. Rather than survey the whole history of the Christian church, it focuses on the formative period between the first and fifth centuries CE, when so many of the understandings and patterns of Christian worship came to be. And rather than include such developments as the monastic hours of prayer and the history of ordination, the authors deal primarily with those aspects of worship that recur on a weekly or regular basis: preaching, Eucharist, and baptism. The book divides its subject into three period. It begins with the emerging worship of the New Testament era. It moves to the second and third centuries, when the church's main tasks of establishing its identity in relation to its Jewish roots and making its way in a hostile Roman environment showed up in its theology and practice of worship. And it concludes with the fourth and fifth centuries, when introducing the increasing numbers of converts after Constantine to Christian faith became one of the highest priorities of the church's worship. This resource will serve as a valuable guide to the historical developments that brought about Christian worship as we know it today.

Bible

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Justo L. González is the author of dozens of books on church history and Christian theology. His The Story of Christianity is a standard textbook in the Americas and around the world.

Catherine Gunsalus González is Professor Emerita of Church History at Columbia Theological Seminary. She is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and is the author of books on the history of preaching and worship.