Ralph P. Martin - Worship in the Early Church

WORSHIP
IN
THE EARLY CHURCH

by

RALPH P. MARTIN

Kindle version edited by Liviu Horvath

W ILLIAM B . E ERDMANS P UBLISHING C OMPANY

G RAND R APIDS

Copyright Ralph P. Martin 1964

First published 1964.

This edition 1974.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Martin, Ralph P.

Worship in the early church.

Includes index.

1. WorshipHistoryEarly church, ca. 30-600.

I. Title.

BV6.M37 1974 264.011 75-14079

ISBN 0-8028-1613-4

Contents

Preface to Revised Edition

It is just over ten years since the first edition of this book appeared, published then by the Fleming H. Revell Company. That edition was written as an expansion of weekly articles for a British periodical. The genesis of the book explains the references in the footnotes to editions and publishers in the United Kingdom. The suggestion that the book should be republished has given an opportunity for the author to update the bibliography. While it is unfortunately not possible to revise the text (save to correct some typographical slips), the author has been pleased to mention several outstanding studies that have appeared over the last ten years or so.

The interest in Christian worship has continued over the decade; and there have been notable contributions made in the field of New Testament and Patristic scholarship as well as in the area of systematic theology (Peter Brunners Worship in the Name of Jesus [Concordia, 1968] may be instanced as a full-scale treatment from the standpoint of Lutheran theology) and liturgical studies both theoretical and practical. An instance of the latter is the collection of essays, from the Catholic and Reformed traditions, in Liturgical Renewal in the Christian Churches , ed. M. J. Taylor (Helicon, 1967).

The nature of Christian worship has been rigorously scrutinized especially by those who deem the traditional forms (and the theology underlying traditional ways of worship) unacceptable to secular man. In particular, the concept of the numinous has been assailed, notably by J. G. Davies, Every Day God (S.C.M. Press, 1973), and some questions about the propriety of the term, asked in the name of philosophy of religion and the comparative study of religion, are raised by N. Smart, The Concept of Worship (Macmillan, 1972). On a broader front, worship and secularization have been discussed in Studia Liturgica , vol. 7), with an important contribution by Charles Davis.

A brief survey of The Worship of the Early Church by Ferdinand Hahn (Fortress Press, 1973) is rich in resource data. It contains a notable attempt to trace New Testament patterns of worship in a developmental way.

For the Old Testament background in the cult and festivals of Israel we have now the English translation of H. J. Kraus book (see p. 11 in this book), appearing as Worship in Israel (John Knox Press, 1966), and mention should be made of H. H. Rowleys fine study, Worship in Ancient Israel (S.P.C.K., 1967).

The prayers of the early Christians have been helpfully considered by F. D. Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his The Prayers of the New Testament (Corpus Books, 1968). More technically, G. P. Wiles, Pauls Intercessory Prayers (C.U.P., 1974), offers a close look at Pauls prayer language, in its form and content. The same may be said for P. T. O Briens forthcoming study Pauline Thanksgivings .

There have been several important discussions of New Testament hymns since 1964. R. Deichgrber, Gotteshymnus und Christushymnus in der frhen Christenheit (Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1967), and J. T. Sanders, The New Testament Christological Hymns (C.U.P., 1969), are among the leaders in this field. The study of Philippians 2:511 mentioned on p. 131 has been published as number 4 in the S.N.T.S. series (1967). Representative work on specific hymnic passages in the New Testament includes: C.F.D. Moule on Philippians ii and R. H. Gundry on 1 Timothy 3:16, both essays available in the Festschrift for F. F. Bruce, Apostolic History and the Gospel (Eerdmans, 1970), while the latest commentary on Philippians (by J.-F. Collange in the Commentaire du Nouveau Testament series, 1973) contains a full discussion (pp. 7497) of the Christ-hymn, and a report on the most recent understanding of Colossians 1:1520 may be read in my edition of the New Century Bible commentary on that epistle (Attic Press, 1974).

The standard textbook on creeds and confessions of faith in the first centuries is J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds . This is now revised in a third edition (MacKay, 1972).

On baptism in early Christianity we now have the English version of R. Schnackenburgs excellent treatment Baptism in the Thought of St. Paul (Herder, 1964), which may be regarded, along with the republished work of G. R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1972), as among the definitive modern expositions of the theme. G. Wagners essay (referred to on p. 105) has been rendered into English as Pauline Baptism and the Pagan Mysteries (Oliver and Boyd, 1967). In defense of general baptism, i.e. a readiness to baptize allespecially infantswho are brought for the rite, R. R. Osborn has written in his book Forbid Them Not (S.P.C.K., 1967). The baptist view is re-stated in J. K. Howard, New Testament Baptism (Pickering and Inglis, 1972). J. D. G. Dunns book Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Allenson, 1970) is an important treatise covering both the New Testament teaching on the Holy Spirit in relation to initiation-baptism and the gifts of the Spirit in the life and worship of the Church.

The origins of the Churchs sacramental meal remain a problem for the scholarly interpreter. Issues to do with form-and redaction-criticism of the gospel narratives are prominent in recent studies, e.g. E. Schweizers The Lords Supper according to the New Testament (Fortress Press, 1967) and W. Marxsen, The Lords Supper as a Christological Problem (Fortress Press, 1970). A history-of-traditions approach which is taken in the latter throws fresh light on the development of eucharistic theology and practice, but it is not free from the charge of speculation. Eucharist and Eschatology by G. Wainwright (Epworth Press, 1971) breaks new ground with a thorough investigation of the eschatological aspects of the Lords Supper.

The possibility of tracing a line of development (now called a trajectory) within the New Testament period of the Churchs life was first mooted by J. M. Robinson (as referred to on p. 135). His essay has now appeared in a German version in the Festschrift for E. Haenchen, Apophoreta (Tpelmann, 1964), under the title, Die Hodajot-Formel in Gebet und Hymnus des Frhchristentums. The valuable essay of E. Schweizer (to which I referred on p. 135) is more easily accessible in the volume of his collected works, Neotestamentica. German and English Essays 19511963 (Zwingli, 1963).

Special studies germane to the theme of early Christian worship have been provided by W. Rordorf, whose book (mentioned on p. 122) has come out in English dress as Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries of the Christian Church (Westminster Press, 1968), and for a popular treatment of Sunday see P. K. Jewett, The Lords Day (Eerdmans, 1971). Studies in the celebration of Easter in the early Church are found in W. Huber, Passa und Ostern (Tpelmann, 1969). The series Traditio Christiana contains a very useful citation of biblical, subapostolic, patristic and conciliar data to do with sabbath and Sunday in Sabbat et dimanche dans lglise ancienne , ed. W. Rordorf (Delachaux and Niestl, 1972).

Finally, the relevance of worship in the Church today is receiving attention. We may instance J. G. Davies, Worship and Mission (Association Press, 1967), J. Killinger, Leave It to the Spirit (Harper and Row, 1971), and J. F. White, New Forms of Worship (Abingdon, 1971). Three books will be of special value in gaining insights into the application of the theology of worship to pastoral concerns: J.-J. von Allmen, Worship: Its Theology and Practice (O.U.P., New York, 1965), S. F. Winward, The Reformation of our Worship (John Knox Press, 1965), and P. W. Hoon, The Integrity of Worship (Abingdon, 1971). The last named is particularly timely with its insistence that, amid liturgical experimentation and flux, we should not lose the essentially theological character of our worshiping activity. The heartbeat of all liturgy is felt as the Church shapes its worship in response to its understanding of Gods action in Jesus Christ. If we do not get our thinking right at the point of Christology, we are not likely to get it right anywhere is a well-spoken sentence, which the present author would like to appropriate as his conviction too as his book is reissued. Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California