Early Christianity

3 Pages 684 Words

What do we learn about the life and structure of the church from the evidence of the first two centuries?

Defining the term ‘church’ as it was used by the early Christians is a useful way of exploring their lives and community organisation. The early Christians saw the term ‘church’ as “the designation for the individual community in a particular place” (Brox). This designation shows the importance placed upon the community by the Christians. There was also considerable independence of communities in that they required nothing outside of themselves to nurture their belief. However this did not mean that the different communities lived in complete isolation, in fact the term ‘church’ was also used for all the communities in a region and throughout the world. Thus because of the independence of local churches they tended to develop along different lines with different traditions, festivals etc. These differences were widely accepted and were usually explained in terms of apostolic authority. As an apostle had founded their community in his particular style and because he shared the same basic ideals of the other apostles so did individual communities share the same basic ideals. These actions showed that the church valued belief and faith over the nitty-
gritty details of worship. The unity of the church can be demonstrated by the exchange of correspondence between the communities. These letters circulated the main concerns of the church at the time usually to give advice or reprimand a church. The messengers delivering letters were always of the church and were given hospitality. This encouraged further communication between the different churches and also established norms of which churches or certain individuals within the church were accepted and which were excommunicated for various reasons. The churches also gave hospitality to itinerant preachers who had gone forth to spread the word. The presence of itinerant p...