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The Early Church at Work and Worship

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A two-volume collection of essays on the practices of the early church by a leading scholar, including previously unpublished material.Many recognise Everett Ferguson as the definitive voice on ear...
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  • 28 August 2014
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A two-volume collection of essays on the practices of the early church by a leading scholar, including previously unpublished material.

Many recognise Everett Ferguson as the definitive voice on early Christianity, patristic writing and ecclesiology. The Early Church at Work and Worship is a challenging collection, broad in scope and formidable in depth.
This is the first volume of Ferguson's collected essays, and includes some of his most memorable work, especially on "laying on of hands". Practices of Ordination and attitudes to religious schism in antiquity are analysed by the scholar in this collection, which not only includes articles and publications from various sources, but also previously unpublished material.
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Price: $40.95
Pages: 352
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Inc.
Imprint: James Clarke
Publication Date: 28 August 2014
Trim Size: 9.02 X 5.98 in
ISBN: 9780227174890
Format: Paperback
REVIEWS Icon
These essays, spanning four decades of Ferguson's scholarship, sum up major discussions of ministry and canon in early Christianity. Especially useful for exploring the terminology surrounding ordination, these essays are vintage Ferguson.
— Elizabeth A. Clark, Professor of Religion, Duke University

Over the years, Everett Ferguson has been a distinguished and prolific contributor to the study of early Christianity, and especially its liturgical practices. It is therefore gratifying to see some of his output collected in these two volumes [...] Characteristic of Professor Ferguson's traditional method of scholarship has been to subject the works of individual patristic authors or particular documents to extremely detailed study of wording, and to accompany his arguments with clear quotation of the sources on which they are based, making them easy to follow [...] It will form a useful addition to the bookshelves of anyone interested in serious study of these areas of early Christianity.
— Paul Bradshaw

This volume contains much insight and common sense in a field beset by rival theories.
— Liviu Barbu

Ferguson's careful and dispassionate weighing of the evidence on both the canon in general and on some of those other writings is a pleasure to read and points decisively to an emerging canon from the second century with gradually solidifying identity, based almost entirely on what the church used and respected.
— Ken Booth,
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations

1 Images of the Church in Early Christian Literature
2 Attitudes to Schism at the Council of Nicaea
3 A Note on Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses IV.8.3
4 Ordination in the Ancient Church, I: Greek, Roman, and Jewish Backgrounds
5 Ordination in the Ancient Church, II: The Ceremony of Ordination
6 Ordination in the Ancient Church, III: Ordination in the Second and Third Centuries
7 Ordination and the Early Church, IV: Ordination in the First Century
8 Selection and Installation to Office in Roman, Greek, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity
9 Jewish and Christian Ordination: Some Observations
10 Qumran and Codex D
11 Origen and the Election of Bishops
12 Eusebius and Ordination
13 Laying on of Hands: Its Significance in Ordination
14 The Covenant Idea in the Second Century
15 Justin Martyr on Jews, Christians, and the Covenant
16 Canon Muratori: Date and Provenance
17 The Muratorian Fragment and the Canon: Review of Hahneman
18 Pseudepigraphy: Post-Canonical Letters
19 Factors Leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament Canon

Bibliography
Index of Ancient Documents
Index of Subjects