Worship in the Early Church

Written by Justo L. González and Catherine Gunsalus González Reviewed By Kenneth J. Stewart

Very many readers of this journal are familiar with Justo González, well known as the author of the two-volume The Story of Christianity, revised ed. (New York: HarperOne, 2010), a companion History of Christian Thought, revised ed. (Nashville: Abingdon, 2014), and many other titles. His spouse, Catherine, is known in her own right as a church historian with a strong interest in the field of homiletics; one of her recent titles was Difficult Texts: A Preaching Commentary (Nashville: Abingdon, 2005).

In Worship in the Early Church, this accomplished duo examines the worship and practices of the early Christians, a subject that receives basic but non-detailed treatment in The Story of Christianity. Justo González’s earlier work emphasized the great divide between the church’s worship pre- and post-Constantine. But now, in this new volume, the husband-wife team shed interesting light on additional factors. For example, they consider Christianity’s original indebtedness to Judaism in the first century, which was displaced as the church oriented itself more and more to the Gentiles of the Roman world. They also allude (as earlier) to the consequences of Constantine’s policies of toleration, and they extend their treatment further with a discussion of what the barbarian invasions meant for the worship of the church.

It is clear that ‘team González’ (one cannot discern which of the two historians contributed to any particular chapter) wrote with a sense of urgency. In the mainline churches with which they identify, they are confronted with a neglect of heritage and theology which allows divine worship to become a kind of “blank canvas” on which a bewildering range of actions and activities are now designated “worship.” They write not as traditionalists but as advocates of the heritage of Christian antiquity. It becomes more and more clear as one reads that they believe that fresh attention to the original Jewish and early Christian rhythms of worship will restore the absent “perpendicular,” which is increasingly difficult to locate in their churches. Evangelical Protestants will identify with the anxiety shown by these writers, though the contributing reasons for evangelical concerns are not strictly identical to those that spur the authors.

This reviewer found the approach taken to be interesting. I had missed many of the clues left across the New Testament about the initial Christian indebtedness to practices associated with the temple and synagogue. This is the background, for instance, of references to stated hours for prayer in the account Luke provides regarding the teaching ministry of the Apostles in the temple precincts (Acts 5:21) and the vision Peter had of a sheet full of animals (Acts 10) (p. 39). There is a helpful investigation of “godfearers” and “proselytes” (e.g., Acts 13:16); these were terms applied initially to Gentiles who hovered on the perimeter of the Jewish synagogue. The large-scale recruiting of these into the young church became a major tension point between the synagogue and the church. Worship in the Early Church is also helpful in its explanation of the way in which the post-100 AD church (the point after which this earlier Jewish influence declined) extended the catechetical period prior to baptism and reception into the church. This extension was a reflection of the pagan (rather than Jewish) past of converts and of the great danger of their apostatizing under Roman persecution (p. 129–30). The best parts of this book have to do with the era of the church up to 312 AD.

But the question arises: “How truly useful is this volume, and how much of it is new?” The reviewer’s strong impression is that what we find here is extensively an expansion of what we can already find in the first volume of The Story of Christianity. There is an elaboration on earlier themes, to be sure. But this is not exactly engaging material. Worship in the Early Church lacks all illustrations (which were present in the earlier volumes). Apart from adequate in-text references to Patristic literature, this volume lacks any documentation, footnotes, or reference notes; it lacks even a closing bibliography. This is to be regretted because, if anything, the book abounds with judgments and verdicts about the often-unwise course followed in the church’s first five centuries. These judgments are, not infrequently, open to question. This is not adequate. Justo González’s recent A Brief History of Sunday: From the New Testament to the New Creation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017), a smaller book than this, came with both end-notes and a list of suggested readings.

Here then, is an interesting and useful book from a formidable team. The writers work from a stance supportive of early orthodox belief and practice. But it is a book whose usefulness could have been far greater if important features had been included.


Kenneth J. Stewart

Ken Stewart is emeritus professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

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