The Church Before Christianity

Rating:
Summary: author's review
Review: I wrote this book to give Christians and folks considering Christianity an idea of what "church" was intended to mean in the early days: a complete society alternative to empire, with God reigning in the midst of the community. It is a "sequel" to Albert Nolan's "Jesus Before Christianity." What Nolan did for the Jesus of Palestine, I tried to do for the first disciples amidst the cities of the Greco-Roman world.

Each of the six chapters has reflection questions suitable for individual or small group use.

Rating:
Summary: author's description
Review: This book is intended to be a sequel to Albert Nolan's "Jesus Before Christianity," an effort which Nolan has gracefully endorsed. It is a look at how the first discipleship communities known as "churches" (from the Greek, ekklesiai, meaning "the called out") saw their commitment not as simply a Sunday morning battery charge for service to Empire, but as the formation of a Spirit-driven alternative society. It links these churches to their roots in biblical Israel's covenant with God to live differently from the "gentiles" (nations) surrounding them. The book draws on a diversity of New Testament texts in focusing on these themes:
1. prayer and worship
2. kinship
3. economics
4. healing, exorcism and public witness

Each of the six chapters contains reflection questions for personal or small group use. It concludes with a "thought experiment" on how these lessons might be lived out as church in our time.