Christian History Magazine on Everyday Life in the Early Church

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to the topic of ‘Everyday Life in the Early Church’.

The whole magazine is available as a 12.1 MB pdf here.

Credo 10, 3 (2020) on the Nicene Creed

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of ‘The Nicene Creed’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘The doctrine of the Trinity is foundational to Christianity. Without it, we have no Christianity at all. For that reason, the church fathers of the fourth century labored to protect the church from those in their midst who undermined the equality of the Son and Spirit with the Father. With great scriptural care, they affirmed the Son’s eternal generation and the Spirit’s eternal spiration not only to distinguish the persons of the Trinity but to safeguard their consubstantiality and divine simplicity. Unfortunately, many have never read the Nicene Creed let alone considered its importance for the preservation of biblical orthodoxy today. This issue of Credo Magazine introduces readers to the Nicene Creed to ensure the next generation is equipped to confess the faith once for all delivered to the saints.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Credo 10, 2 (2020) on the Church Fathers

The current issue of Credo is available, this one devoted to the topic of ‘The Great Tradition: Patristic Edition’.

Here’s the blurb:

‘Few Christians today have ever heard about the Church Fathers. Those that have heard about the fathers have been warned that they are Roman Catholic or untrustworthy exegetes, or both! However, there is a retrieval underfoot that is not so easily overcome by ignorance or lax acceptance of sloppy caricatures. Christians are now rediscovering the Fathers for the first time. They are also noticing that many of the doctrinal missteps today could have been avoided if we had only paid attention to the insights the Fathers offer. This issue of Credo Magazine is an entryway to the fathers, encouraging you to go deeper and read the fathers for yourself. But it’s more: this issue is a call to be humble and sit at the feet of the fathers as they admonish us for the sake of renewal in the church today.’

Individual articles, along with interviews and book reviews, are available to read from here.

Poverty in the Early Church and Today

Steve Walton and Hannah Swithinbank (eds.), Poverty in the Early Church and Today: A Conversation (London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2019).

Thanks to Bloomsbury T&T Clark, the above book has been made available as a pdf free of charge, here, on Knowledge Unlatched.

The book grew out of a conference on ‘Engaging with Poverty in the Early Church and Today’ held at St Mary’s University, Twickenham (London) in December 2015.

Here are some paragraphs from the editors on ‘How the Book Works’.

‘Poverty is one of the most significant challenges our world today faces, and it is a particular challenge for Christians, who follow the Jesus who urges giving to the poor and who includes people in poverty among his highest concerns. The essays in this book offer a fresh angle on debates about poverty by bringing together people who have expertise and experience in alleviating poverty today with people who have expertise in the ancient worlds of the Bible. We bring them together in order to have a conversation about how Christians today might think about and act on poverty issues, informed by the way our ancestors-in-faith responded to poverty in their places and times.

‘We are not simply interested in holding up modern practices to a supposed early Christian example. Rather, we are interested in the complex ways in which the early Christian ideas and practices relate to modern ideas and practices and vice versa. In other words, the conversation in this book aims to address both continuities and discontinuities between the ancient world and today. We are most interested in coming to grips with the full complexity of the matter, in order to inform and engage our readers, whom we hope will include church leaders, people working in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) concerned with poverty and thoughtful people, both Christian and not...

‘The body of the book is a series of sets of four essays, in which we pair an expert in early Christianity in its Jewish and Graeco-Roman settings with an expert in modern strategies for addressing poverty and benefaction. They each address the same topic from their respective areas of expertise in a substantial essay, and then each author responds to their partner much more briefly, identifying points which are mutually informing and stimulating. In this way, we hope we shall both model and encourage profitable conversation between those primarily engaged in today’s world and specialists in the biblical world.’

Fides et Humilitas 3 (2016)

Fides et Humilitas appears to be published annually by the Center for Ancient Christian Studies, which ‘exists to provide an evangelical voice to the academic fields engaging ancient Christian literature’.

The contents of volume 3, and the abstracts where available, are as follows:

Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite

Editorial: An “Unspeakably Narrow Discipline”: Martin Hengel and the Need for Interdisciplinary Scholarship

Ancient Figure Highlight

Ian Clary

Ignatius of Antioch: Bishop, Theologian, and the Apologist of Life and Death

Articles

Michael A.G. Haykin

Inspiration and Inerrancy in the Ancient Church

Patrick Schreiner 

Number Symbolism and the Feeding of the Four Thousand in the Gospel of Matthew

This study argues that the feeding of the 4,000 in Matthew 15:32–39 should be read as a Gentile feeding. There are a number of arguments that support this reading (structurally, geographically, thematically, and OT background), but the most debated aspect is the role of the numbers 4,000 and seven. These numbers have been interpreted symbolically throughout the history of interpretation but in the time of the Reformation an allegorical reading of numbers began to be rejected. The number 4,000 should be understood representing people coming from the four corners of the earth, and seven points to the completion and fulfillment of God’s purposes. By seeing these numbers as symbolic, the argument that this is a Gentile feeding becomes more secure.

J. Daniel McDonald

The Holy Spirit, Caritas, and the Bond of Unity in Augustine’s Anti-Donatist Writings

Written over a period of twenty years, Augustine’s De Trinitate, one of Augustine’s greatest works, serves as the pinnacle of the development of Trinitarian doctrine in the ancient church. Found within his anti-Donatist writings, however, is a well-developed doctrine of the Trinity. Particularly in De Baptismo contra Donatistas, Contra litteras Petiliani, and Letter 185 (works that were written before the publication of De Trinitate), Augustine links the Holy Spirit as caritas and the bond of unity in the Trinity as the source of unity within the Catholic church. Augustine would later develop an argument identifying the Holy Spirit as caritas and the bond of unity in length in De Trinitate Book XV.5. This indicates that Augustine already had a mature understanding of Trinitarian doctrine early on in his ministry.

Book Reviews

Previous copies of the journal can be found here. Volume 3 can be downloaded as (14.9 MB) pdf here.

Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting

The Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting: From the First to the Seventh Century (JJMJS) is a peer-reviewed academic open access journal, published electronically in cooperation with Eisenbrauns, with the support of McMaster University and the Caspari Center.

According to its website, the journal aims ‘to advance scholarship on this crucial period in the early history of the Jewish and Christian traditions when they developed into what is today known as two world religions, mutually shaping one another as they did so’. The journal ‘publishes high-quality research on any topic that directly addresses or has implications for the understanding of the inter-relationship and interaction between the Jesus movement and other forms of Judaism, as well as for the processes that led to the formation of Judaism and Christianity as two related but independent religions’.

The journal can be read via issuu, from where it can also be downloaded if you have an issuu account.

Journal of the Jesus Movement in its Jewish Setting

‘JJMJS is a peer- reviewed, open-access journal published in collaboration with Eisenbrauns, offering high quality research free of charge to a global audience. The journal aims to advance scholarship on this crucial period in the early history of the Jewish and Christian traditions when they developed into what are today known as two world religions, mutually shaping one another as they did so.’

See here for the Introduction to the journal from which the above paragraph is taken, and here for access to the first issue.

Eddie Adams on the Meeting Places of Early Christians

Larry Hurtado has posted a helpful summary of what looks like an important book from Eddie Adams – The Earliest Christian Meeting Places: Almost Exclusively Houses? (London: Bloomsbury, 2013).

‘For some time now, the general view has been that earliest Christians met (e.g., for group worship) in houses, at least mainly. In a newly-published study, Dr. Edward Adams (Kings College London) queries this, contending that the evidence for this view isn’t as solid and consistent as commonly thought, and that the extant evidence suggests instead a variety of settings.’

Christian History Magazine on Christianity in Early Africa

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to ‘Christianity in Early Africa’.

According to its blurb...

‘Stories of faithful heroes, martyrs, bishops, and monks – like Tertullian, Augustine, Origen, Perpetua, and Anthony – combine with vibrant images of African art, worship sites, and archeological remains to uncover important history Westerners often overlook. Journey to ancient Carthage, Alexandria and Hippo to find the truths these believers held dear and understand how their impact is still felt today.’

The whole magazine is available as a 13.2 MB pdf here.

Lausanne World Pulse (December 2011)

The themed articles in December 2011’s Lausanne World Pulse – the last official issue to be published – are devoted to ‘Early Church Models of Evangelism and Mission’.

Jerry Root

Evangelism and the Early Church

What can we learn from the approaches employed by the early Church to reach others for Christ? Root shares five points: (1) their lives were transformed demonstrably by the love and forgiveness of Christ; (2) their love burned hot for Christ and found obedience to the Great Commission; (3) they made the most of the opportunities before them; (4) they demonstrated great creativity in sharing the gospel; and (5) they were not willing to let fear keep them from telling others about Jesus.

Dion Forster

When You Cannot Preach: A Case for Relational Evangelism

One may be surprised to see how simple, yet different, Jesus’ model of evangelism is when compared to many popular models used today. Dion discusses the importance of relational/friendship evangelism following a pattern of blessing people, building relationships, ministering to needs, and then preaching the gospel.

John Abraham Godson

Prayer in the Early Church

Prayer is one of the foundations upon which the early Church was built. It permeated and undergirded their actions and fellowship. Godson looks at how the early Church prayed, where they prayed, and for what they prayed. According to Godson, the early Church prayed without ceasing, individually, corporately, with the word of God, earnestly, and with thanksgiving.

Dale Schlafer

Ekklesia: A Call to Unity in the Body of Christ

We should be so connected relationally with other followers of the Lord Jesus that the non-believing world thinks we are one, the author writes. Biblical unity has been authorized by our Lord. The question for us is: are we doing it?

Carol Madison

Two New Prayer Tools to Fuel the Prayer Movement

The author shares two resources to expand prayer movements both nationally and internationally. Prayer Connect magazine (with the tagline: ‘Connecting to the Heart of Christ through Prayer’) published its premiere issue in July 2011. Praybook is a website that interfaces with Facebook as a tool to mobilize thousands of people to pray for thousands of ‘friends.’

The Executive Summary is available here, and the full version here.

Early Christianity 1, 3 (2010)

This issue of Early Christianity, containing essays on ‘Current Trends in Jesus Research’, is available in its entirety as a pdf here.