Early Christians Speak: Faith and Life in the First Three Centuries

These studies in early church history cover various aspects of the church life of early Christians. They focus on the second century. What did the second century Christian leaders say about faith, baptism, infant baptism, worship services, the Lord's Supper, prayer, singing, church organization, mercy and the role of women? New Testament texts bearing on the topic are listed at the beginning of each chapter. We are talking about the same community of people, the same church, as existed in the New Testament. Such writings have an important bearing on the interpretation of the Scriptures.

With generous support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and as part of the National Endowment of the Humanities Open Book program, the Abilene Christian University's ACU Press and Brown Library partnered with the Disciples of Christ Historical Society (DCHS) to digitize 25 important backlist titles relevant to Stone-Campbell tradition, theology, and church history. This open access version is hosted by Atla Open Press in furtherance of the purposes of the grant.