THE LIFE OF THE

EARLY CHURCH
LITURGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE
 REVIEW
Day of the Pentecost
(Holy Spirit descended onto Christ`s followers)

Most of the first followers were Jewish converts

(the church was centered in Jerusalem)

Many Gentiles (non-Jews) embraced

Christianity

Early Christians considered it their calling to

spread and teach the gospel. One of the
important missionaries was Apostle Paul, a
former persecutor of Christians. He established
churches throughout the Roman empire,
Europe and Africa.
 REVIEW
Early Christians were persecuted for their faith
by both Jewish and Roman leaders.
 REVIEW
When Emperor Constantine converted to
Christianity, religious tolerance shifted in the
Roman Empire.

In 313 AD, Constantine lifted the

ban on Christianity with the Edict
of Milan. He later tried to unify
Christianity and resolve issues that
divided the church by establishing
the Nicene Creed.

During this time, there were several groups of

Christians with different ideas about how to
interpret scriptures and the role of the church.
 INTRODUCTION

What kind of life did the church have at this time? How did people
worship? What was the structure of church government? Despite
the persecutions, the early church did not remain in a state of
suspended animation. Both in organization and in liturgy, we can
see the growth of a well-defined structure. Because Christ`s
message was intended for all people, and not just one particular
ethnic group, several adaptations had to take place if the religion
was to survive and various groups be included. Jewish law was the
first casualty in this development. Circumcision could hardly be
imposed on a people to whom its practice was alien, meaningless,
and often abhorrent. Language also had to be adapted – the
ruling principle being that the people had to understand the
message. This meant translating the Scriptures and the liturgy first
into Greek, and then eventually into Latin.
 LITURGICAL DEVELOPMENT

it was not the Roman temple that became the model for the new Christian
church building – for the typical temple was too small for anyone but the
priest and his sacrificial victim – but the Roman basilica, the large
rectangular building in which the king (basileus in Greek) heard court cases.
With all of this attention on the sacrificial, priests and stone altars began to
take on more importance.
 LITURGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Hippolytus wrote the EUCHARISTIC

PRAYER, which he commends to those
who cannot compose on their own.
This prayer is now the PREFACE to the
Second Eucharistic Prayer.
 THE STRUCTURE OF THE
EARLY CHURCH

Priests would concelebrate with the

bishop at the principal Eucharist, take a
portion of the host with them to their
outlying communities, and celebrate the
Eucharist again. This is why the priest
even today breaks off a portion of the host
at the Lamb of God and puts it in the
chalice – as a symbol that he and his
community are celebrating along with the
bishop.
 APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION

Tradition and considerable evidence has it that the apostles became

heads of local churches:
> James the Great and James the Less in JERUSALEM
> John in ANTIOCH
> Mark in ALEXANDRIA
 Peter and Paul in ROME

Their authority was then passed on to successors. This is referred to as

“apostolic succession.” Clement, in AD 95, wrote to the Corinthians that the
bishops were the successors to the apostles, who were successors to Christ.
 PRIMACY OF PETER
(RELATED TO APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION WERE THE QUESTIONS
SURROUNDING THE PRIMACY OF PETER)

Did Peter`s successors

Do his successors succeed him in this supremacy?

continue his
Was he the bishop of Rome?

authority?
Was Peter primary over the other apostles?
 THE END OF THE FIRST AGE

One obvious lesson to be learned is that it would be a great

mistake to picture the early church as a utopian society toward which
Christians should be striving to return. Any reading of the Acts of the
Apostles and Paul`s letters show plainly that the early church grew up
amidst considerable division, contention, and persecution. There were
problems regarding authority, discipline, membership – all sorts of
problems, in fact, that were the result of circumstances, growing pains,
and basic human weakness.
One top of all the difficulties, seventy thousand Christians were
put to death by the Roman government. The combination of internal
dissension and external persecution could have been fatal to young
church, but the opposite reaction actually happened. The decline, so
characteristics of the end of the church, does not occur at the end of
the First Age. Instead dealing the church a crushing blow, the
persecutions awoke the whole Empire to the teachings and practices of
Christianity. Even the new emperor, Constantine, would become a
Christian. Christianity had indeed arrived.