Why Study the Early Church?

Why Study the Early Church?Can reading early theologians such as Saint Augustine, alongside Scripture, inspire our faith? For Christians formed by a commitment to Scripture alone, studying early Christianity and the writings of the saints may feel unnecessary or perhaps even dangerously close to abandoning the ideals of the Protestant Reformation. Yet these ancient theologians have long served as vital guides for understanding Scripture and the life of faith. Drawing on Hebrews

and then moves to a synthesis of Paul's general pneumatology

Baylis surveys the New Testament in canonical order and integrates Old Testament quotes and clear allusions contextually into the exposition

Prepare to let Paul's message of change and renewal transform your own thinking

biblical scholarship

and to demonstrate how these theological ideas can be developed into clear and accurate expository ideas

Seitz clearly shows that a new conceptuality of prophecy

Daniel Harrington

● expanded coverage of the New Testament world in a new chapter on Jewish backgrounds

offers illuminating archaeological information related to the Old Testament

marriage and family

each of the Pauline letters is examined in detail

Appreciating our created finitude as the condition under which we know (and were made to know) should compel us to appreciate the contingency of our knowledge without sliding into arbitrariness