Issue 147 Everyday life in the early church

What's inside

The “pious poor” and the “wicked rich”

Early Christian discipleship around money, wealth, and charity

Helen Rhee

“What God has joined together”

Marriage, family, divorce, and adultery in early Christianity

David G. Hunter

“This superstition”

Pliny, Roman governor of Bithynia in the early second century, asks for advice on how to deal with the Christian movement

Pliny

Did you know? Everyday life in the early church

A small taste of what it was like to be part of the early Christian church

the editors and Kate Cooper

Letters to the editor. Everyday life in the early church

Readers respond to Christian History

readers and editors

Meet the team: Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong

Chris Armstrong and the editor

Editors note: Everyday life in the early church

The Christian faith denied a central organizing principle of the Roman state.

Jennifer Woodruff Tait

A day in the life

What did it feel like to be a follower of the Way at the very beginning?

James L. Papandrea

“To life, not to luxury”

In the late second-century work The Instructor, Clement of Alexandria has thoughts about how Christians ought to eat dinner

Clement of Alexandria, translated by William Wilson, Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. 2

“Blessings out of number”

Good marriage and parenting according to John Chrysostom in the late fourth century

Chrysostom

Christian History timeline: Everyday life in the early church

Some of the events shaping this issue in context

the editors

The way of life

Christian formation and the life of prayer in the early church

Paul M. Blowers

“According to custom”

Egeria, a woman from western Europe, traveled to Jerusalem

Egeria

Serving the true Lord and God

Why Christians presented such a huge challenge to the Roman state 

George Kalantzis

The emperor and the desert

Christian commitment to asceticism grew in a newly legalized faith

Kate Cooper

The Way spreads through the world

Life in early Christian cities

Jennifer A. Boardman

Questions for reflection: Everyday life in the early church

Reflect on life among the earliest followers of Christ

the editors

Recommended resources: Everyday life in the early church

Read more about everyday faith in the early church in these resources recommended by our authors and THE CH TEAM.

the authors and editors
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