Steven A. McKinion - Life and Practice in the Early Church

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Life and Practice in the Early Church

A Documentary Reader

EDITED BY

Steven A. McKinion

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London

2001 by New York University
All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Life and practice in the early church : a documentary reader / edited by
Steven A. McKinion.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-8147-5649-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

ISBN 0-8147-5648-4 (cloth : alk paper)

1. ChurchHistory of doctrinesEarly church, ca. 30600Sources.

I. McKinion, Steven A. (Steven Alan)

BV598 .L54 2001

270.1dc21 2001000564

New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To
Ginger, Lachlan, and Blakely

The completion of this project is due to the diligence and work of a number of individuals. I would like to offer my deepest appreciation to those who have contributed either directly or indirectly to the present work.

Professor Iain R. Torrance first inspired me to search the riches of the patristic writers, and for that I am grateful. His friendship has meant more to me than he will ever know. He is a mentor in the truest sense of the term.

I am thankful to President Paige Patterson and my colleagues at Southeastern Seminary for an environment in which scholarship is not divorced from the functional aspects of the Christianity. Along with academic freedom, there is an awareness of a responsibility to Christian service and pastoral concern. This may not be the garden of Eden, but it is close.

My students here at Southeastern are the real inspiration behind this text. Dialogue in class about these very topics has shaped its framework and direction. A focus group of students has been particularly helpful. John Nixon, Miles Mullin, Bob Olsen, and Keith Griffin have read every word and made comments that have strengthened the volume.

I cannot say enough about Jennifer Hammer, my editor at NYU Press. She has proven to be indispensable. Besides seeing something in the manuscript worth publishing, she made comments throughout the process that have made it worth reading. There is something of her contribution on nearly every page, and I am immensely grateful to her, along with the entire team at NYU.

I was fortunate to be reared in a home that demonstrated the importance of many of the themes in the selections that follow. My wife, Ginger, inspired me at every turn to press on with the project. She is a helpmate in every way. My children, Lachlan and Blakely, are too young (four and two, at this time) to know the influence they have on their father. I lovingly dedicate this volume to my wonderful family.

Steven A. McKinion
Wake Forest, North Carolina

This collection of primary texts is intended to introduce the story of how the early Christians practiced their faith. It is not a survey of theology per se, but a survey of how theology was actually lived and played out by the community of faith called the Christian church. The selections that follow demonstrate how early believers did church. They stand at the nexus of belief and practice, of theory and action, of theological and social history. They demonstrate variation and diversity regarding how faith was worked out in the patristic period. The reader will discover many different ways in which Christians experienced and expressed their community of faith.

Why is a collection of this nature necessary? The question can be answered at two levels. On the philosophical level, early Christian writings reveal a great deal about the Christian tradition and the wider culture in which Christianity developed. On the practical level, most one-volume document collections tend to be concerned almost exclusively with theological issues and dogma, often to the neglect of more functional matters. Also, they frequently attempt to be all things to all people, encompassing such a vast period of time that the selections must be brief. While there are many good collections, there are few works that provide substantial selections concerned exclusively with life and practice in the patristic period. This volume seeks to fill that void.

The selection of particular passages was guided by a few broad parameters. First, the documents date from the end of the first century C.E. to roughly the fifth century. This interval allowed for a wide range of developments to take place. Second, the writing must have articulated a widely accepted belief or practice, have been written by someone in a position of authority whose instruction would be given considerable weight in its original setting, or have challenged the prevailing position of the time. Third, the document from which the passage is taken must exist in a readily accessible English translation in order to allow the reader to follow up what is presented here. I have chosen to use documents from the Ante-Nicene Fathers (hereafter ANF) and the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (hereafter NPNF) series because of their availability in both printed and digital formats. It should be noted, however, that most of the translations presented in this volume have been altered slightlyand some considerablyby dearchaizing vocabulary (e.g., thee and thou to you) and by polishing some of the syntax. In places, what was deemed to be an inadequate translation has been replaced. This collection is not exhaustive (how massive that would be!) but is representative of the patristic writers.

Overarching all of the decisions has been a desire to broadly represent different traditions. Every Christian tradition is concerned with the subjects addressed in this book. While it would be tempting to extract only those passages affirming my own practice, it has not been my intention to do so. There are positions held by some of the Fathers that I would not affirm. The patristic writers were not monolithic in matters of life and practice, and it is important that the early Christians be heard in their own words and in the fullness of their diversity and their sometimes conflicting directives.

Doubtless there are texts omitted that many will consider indispensable, and others included that some would prefer to be absent. The material on the cutting-room floor is more voluminous that I had hoped. Too many important texts did not make the first, second, or subsequent cuts. However, decisions had to be made and important texts excluded. In the final analysis, each text here contributes in its own way to telling the story of life in the early Christian community.