Customer Reviews

Early Christians Speak

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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 elaborate on tithing (Ferguson 86).
Also, the author introduces the very interesting fact that early Christians were sometimes thought of as atheists because they did not do blood sacrifice. Ferguson points out that prayer is the Christian's sacrifice, and the early Christian life was filled with prayer (Ferguson 119-120). Ferguson also states that the Lord's Prayer was used as a model only in the early church, and was not a set prayer to be repeated verbatim, as some denominations do today, but was used as "an outline or sketch of prayer that was either filled in or supplemented with one's own petitions" (Ferguson 136).
Lastly, Ferguson does present an interesting and fairly balanced insight into the early church. For example, Ferguson devotes a section to the book on early Christian hymns and poetry, and gives a strong argument for non-instrumental worship; however, he does not condemn the use of instruments, but leaves room for discussion on this sensitive subject. He does note that there was no evidence of musical accompaniment in Christian liturgy until the Middle Ages. The early hymns were most likely chanted and did not have musical accompaniment. Furthermore, Ferguson states that the early church fathers associated musical instruments with immorality and idolatry and "took a very dim view of them in any setting" (Ferguson 157).
In conclusion, this book is well-organized, well-written, and provides the reader with sufficient notes and references to further explore each chapters' subject matter with ease. This format is helpful for the casual reader as well as the scholar. This is an excellent book, and a good edition to anyone's personal library.

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.

Point: The early Church fathers can greatly enhance our understanding of Scripture and Church life.

Path: Ferguson sets up his chapters by providing quotations from the fathers followed by an explanation or summarization, and ending with a bibliography.

Sources: Primary sources, but addresses pertinent secondary sources.

Agreement: I like the format. Seeing the fathers this way is a good way to be introduced to them. Helpful bibliographies.

Disagreement: The fathers are not best read in small snippets, but doing this has made them more accessible.

Personal App: I need to read more of what the fathers had to say. Their devotion and piety challenges my own lack of it.

It would be worth another read and I would recommend it.

Everett Ferguson reviews early Christian literature to see how they practiced Christianity then so we can compare it to what we do today. He does so with great scholarship but in a way that even the basic Church person can learn.

Is the way we do things today the same as how they did it then?
Have we changed things too much today?
Did we get it right or have we allowed tradition of almost two thousand years to influence us too much?

These are important questions if one is serious about getting it right and doing it God's way! Ferguson shows us not what theologians say but rather what the early Christians say they thought and did.

Such a study is well worth the effort of any serious Christian today.

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