Early Christians Speak

This is an excellent reference work covering Christian doctrines via documents written by people in the 1st-4th centuries A.D. Each chapter is on a particular subject, e.g., the Canon of Scripture, and begins with quotes from various ancient manuscripts, mainly authored by "church fathers". Recommended for any serious Bible student interested in learning what early Christians believed and taught. Dr Ferguson has other books (including the volume one companion to this book) that are equally valuable resources.

In this book, the author truly does permit the early Christians to "speak." In each chapter, Everett Ferguson gives excerpts from various early Christian writings in order to give voice to these early writers. In addition, Ferguson also supplies a discussion section which enables modern day readers to look deeper into each chapter's given subject, and to see how Christian thought has evolved from the time of the early church to now. Ferguson's discussion format also provokes the reader to explore his or her own opinion on the given subject. Furthermore, each chapter ends with a bibliography and notes section which directs the reader to helpful sources, if further investigation is desired. The subjects of the book include important Christian practices such as baptism, early church creeds, the Lord's Supper, and other Christian topics. However, Ferguson does not limit the book to these topics. The author also includes cultural insights into early Christian living, Christians in the military, and women of the early church. The author states that the book is designed with "a stress on historical continuity" of the New Testament with the goal of tracing the New Testament's historical development through the second century (Ferguson,vii). Ferguson's goal is for the book to be accessible for readers who have no real knowledge of the early church outside from the New Testament in order to "enable them to break into the New Testament from a new perspective, and so give them a fresh look at early Christianity" (Ferguson,viii). It is the opinion of the writer of this paper, that Ferguson has achieved his goal. Ferguson gives some interesting highlights into the various subjects presented in the book. For example, the author points out that the early church had no set creed, "but the church did have a clearly defined set of beliefs which it preached and confessed from its beginning" (Ferguson 22). Creeds developed later in the church's history. However, there is evidence of an early baptismal creed. This comes from Hippolytus' Apostolic Tradition, in which he describes a series of questions given to the person at baptism, and the individual's response confession determined one's ability to be baptized. This is a strong argument that infant baptism was not the common practice at that time, in that an infant would not have the ability to answer any questions (Ferguson 23-24). In addition, Ferguson notes that the early church did not practice tithing because they were breaking away from the Old Testament teachings. While Ferguson does give some interesting highlights about giving in the early church, it would have been helpful if he would have informed the reader as to when the practice of tithing ten percent of one's income (an Old Testament practice) became a common practice in the church. Ferguson does elaborate on various subjects earlier in the book, and this is very helpful to the reader, so it is a disappointment that he did not also

This book will contribute to the unity of professed Christians as they seek to rediscover biblical roots and the development of doctrine in the post New Testament period. The brief discussions of each topic ranging from baptism and the Eucharist to Christians in military service and early Christain acts of mercy, are drawn from a solid selection of early Christian writings and elucidate how changes in thinking occurred. This book is an excellent introduction to early post-apostolic church thought and very helpful to any sincere investigator of historical theology. The Lost Mystery of Baptism

Book was delivered promptly and in very good condition. I am very happy with the purchase.