WORSHIP
IN
THE EARLY CHURCH

by

RALPH P. MARTIN

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids

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. Worship—History—Early church, ca. 30-600.

I. Title.

BV6.M37 1974 264’.01’1 75-14079

ISBN 0-8028-1613-4

Contents

Preface to Revised Edition

Introduction

1. The Church—A Worshipping Community

2. The Jewish Inheritance in the Temple and Synagogue

3. The Prayers and Praises of the New Testament

4. Hymns and Spiritual Songs

5. ‘The Pattern of Sound Words’—Early Creeds and Confessions of Faith

6. The Ministry of the Word

7. ‘Concerning the Collection’—Christian Stewardship

8. The Gospel Sacraments—Baptism in the Teaching of Jesus

9. The Apostolic Practice of Baptism

10. The Last Supper—Its Background and Significance

11. The Lord’s Supper in the Early Church

12. Later Developments of Christian Worship

Index

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 Brunner’s 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 ...