An early creed

The Church, though dispersed through our the whole world, even to the ends of the earth, has received from the apostles and their disciples this faith: [She believes] in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them; and in one Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who became incarnate for our salvation; and in the Holy Spirit…

A Baptist asks a good question

What are the actual historical evidences, before Zwingli, for the Baptist view of the Lord’s Supper? Long story short: No answer. If there are evidences, then someone needs to write a book, asap. It’s long overdue.

Augustine’s Origin of Species

North African bishop Augustine of Hippo (354–430) had no skin in the game concerning the current origins controversies. He interpreted Scripture a thousand years before the Scientific Revolution, and 1,500 before Darwin’s Origin of Species. Augustine didn’t “accommodate” or “compromise” his biblical interpretation to fit new scientific theories. The important thing was to let Scripture speak for itself.

The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles

The Didachē is a short catechism, probably written in Syria during the second half of the 1st century. The Didachē is concerned with practical discipline and does not deliberately teach doctrine, but from the writer’s assumptions we learn a great deal about the development of the early Church in his generation.

Development of Christian Liturgy

When the Lord Jesus Christ, having gathered his disciples round him to supper on the night before he suffered death, solemnly broke bread before them and blessed a cup of wine and gave them to his disciples, he enjoined them to continue this thenceforward as a continual memorial of his death and passion undergone for the redemption of the world. This command was obeyed from the time that the Holy Spirit descended upon the Church shortly after our Lord’s ascension into heaven. We are told, of those who were converted by the preaching of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, that ‘they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers’.

Deacons and bishops at the end of the first century

By the time St Paul wrote his New Testament advice to elders and overseers, the Church had been growing explosively for several decades. By the end of the first century, St John’s disciple Ignatius wrote about how the orders of clergy interacted in his experience…

Cyprian of Carthage: What unites the Church? (250 AD)

Related:
The Martyrdom of Cyprian of Carthage

Since the Lord warns us, saying, “Ye are the salt of the earth,” and since He bids us to be simple to harmlessness, and yet with our simplicity to be prudent, then what else, beloved brethren, befits us than to use foresight and watching with an anxious heart, both to [...]

The Protevangelium

Though the Protevangelium has never been considered Scripture, it is well worth reading to see what early Christians accepted as normal. Within living memory of the last of the apostles, the Protevangelium was being copied, translated and distributed among the churches, who found it both profitable and familiar…

What distinguishes Christians?

Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs.

John’s disciple Ignatius writes to Christians in Asia Minor (107 AD)

The significance of these seven letters lies in their being intimate, familiar, and popular. They do not, in the first instance, reveal a set of ideas though they are not lacking in thoughtfulness. Rather they reveal a man. So much of early Christian literature is impersonal that it is refreshing to stumble upon letters reminiscent [...]

Why did Christ become Man? (Athanasius, 318AD)

On the Incarnation
by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria
Introduction by C.S. Lewis
1. Creation and the Fall

(1) In our former book [i.e. the Contra Gentes] we dealt fully enough with a few of the chief points about the heathen worship of idols, and how those false fears originally arose. We also, by God’s grace, briefly indicated that the [...]