As a pastor and New Testament student these two worlds often collide. Nowhere is this more evident at the moment than with many who are now engaged in what is quickly being labelled “A churchless faith”. Frank Viola and George Barna’s Pagan Christianity has advanced this view into a more popular arena. Ben Witherington has offered thoughts on the matter, even adding Howard Snyder’s review of Pagan Christianity to his blog.
Witherington recommends James Burtchaell's important monograph From Synagogue to Church. Public Services and Offices in the Earliest Christian Communities (Cambridge U. Press, 1992), which I’ve now ordered and will devour soon. I’m sure Robert Banks’ book Paul’s Idea of Community would be helpful, and so I’ve added that to the list. Does anyone know of any other books on this topic? I’m specifically looking for the impossible, you know, books on characteristics of early Christian gatherings, the various ingredients that made up their gatherings. I’m also not wishing to confine this research to the New Testament documents alone, so I’m very interested in the Didache and other literature of early Christianity that may shed light on this topic. Can anyone recommend any helpful commentaries on The Didache? I’m caught between Kurt Niederwimmer and Aaron Milavec. Milavec looks to be exhaustive, having 1000pgs of comments and discussion. But the Niederwimmer is in a respected series. Anyone have any thoughts on either of these?
6 comments:
Sean, you might also check out William Varner's The Way of the Didache: The First Christian Handbook. See here: http://www.amazon.com/Way-Didache-First-Christian-Handbook/dp/0761837140/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218621433&sr=1-1
I know this is terribly obvious, but Larry Hurtado, of course, has been publishing on the character of early Christian worship for a couple decades now. I had my second-year students in Acts read his At the Origins of Christian Worship, which was an easy and short introduction to the matter. Hope this helps.
I'd recommend "Reimagining Church" which is the sequel to Pagan Christianity. It's an indepth treatment of the early church and its bearing on our time. You can read endorsements and a sample chapter at http://www.reimaginingchurch.org
A good response to Ben Witherington's review can be read at this web page http://www.paganchristianity.org/zensresponds1.htm
Here are some other sources...
Oscar Cullmann (1953) Early Christian Worship.
Ralph P. Martin (1964) Worship in the Early Church
J.N.D. Kelly (1978) Early Christian Doctrines, especially pp. 189-220 "The Christian Community"
Hey thanks!
This is so helpful! Will working through this in the next bit, and let you know what I find.
Thanks again!
Hi Sean, I'm a bit late with this but as your research interests and mine overlap, I have a couple of suggestions for you: Roger Gehring's House Church and Mission is pretty good; James Jeffers Conflict at Rome: Social Order and Hierarchy in Early Christianity (looking at Clement and Hermas and the communities they belonged to) and Harry O Maier The Social setting of the Ministry as reflected in the writings of Hermas, Clement and Ignatius (it starts with the later Paulines).
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