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St. Irenaeus of Lyons — Apostolic Succession and the Faith Handed Down
How did the earliest Christians know which interpretation of Christianity was true? By the end of the second century, many groups claimed to possess the real teaching of Jesus. Some claimed to have secret knowledge. Others produced alternative interpretations of Scripture. Some even claimed that the visible Church had misunderstood the faith handed down by…
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St. Justin Martyr — The Mass in AD 155
What would happen if we could walk into a Christian church less than 130 years after the Resurrection of Jesus and watch Christians worship? Would we find something completely unfamiliar? Would we find Christians simply gathering informally, reading Scripture and sharing ordinary bread and wine as symbols? Or would we recognise something remarkably similar to…
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St. Ignatius of Antioch — The Eucharist, the Bishop and the Catholic Church
St. Ignatius of Antioch — c. AD 107 Imagine being able to read the words of a Christian bishop writing only a few generations after the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not a medieval theologian. Not someone writing a thousand years after the Apostles. But a bishop of one of the great churches of…
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The Didache — A Window Into the Earliest Christian Church
The Didache — c. AD 70–120 What did Christianity look like immediately after the age of the Apostles? Did the earliest Christians simply gather together, read Scripture and interpret Christianity individually? Or was there already a recognisable Christian way of life involving Baptism, Eucharistic worship, fasting, confession, bishops and deacons? One of the oldest Christian…
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The Early Church Fathers: What Did the First Christians Actually Believe?
When Christians disagree about doctrine today, one of the most useful questions we can ask is: What did the Christians closest to the Apostles believe? The Early Church Fathers were bishops, priests, theologians, martyrs and Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church. Their writings are not Sacred Scripture. They were not individually infallible.…