An Important Study on the Worship of the Early Church This introduction to the origins of Christian worship illuminates the importance of ancient liturgical patterns for contemporary Christian practice. Andrew McGowan takes a fresh approach to understanding how Christians came to worship in the distinctive forms still familiar today. Deftly and expertly processing the bewildering complexity of the ancient sources into lucid, fluent exposition, he sets aside common misperceptions to explore the roots of Christian ritual practices--including the Eucharist, baptism, communal prayer, preaching, Scripture reading, and music--in their earliest recoverable settings. Now in paper.

The particular excitement of this volume lies in its focus on the everyday realities of Christians' lives in the era of Christian ascendancy and Roman decline. Popular fiction, childrearing and toys, rituals of inclusion, the beginning of veneration of saints and shunning of heretics, the ascetic impulse, food practices—all these and more lend color and texture to the story of a "people's" Christianity in this formative stage.

This third volume covers the eventful period of Christian emperors, patriarchs, and oecumenical councils, from Constantine the Great to Gregory the Great. It completes the history of Ancient Christianity, which is the common inheritance of Greek, Latin, and Evangelical Christendom. It will be followed at no distant time by the History of Mediaeval Christianity to the Reformation. -The Author, New York, January, 1884

Reprint of the original, first published in 1884.