Why the Didache? Why bother to write a book about such a text, and why bother to read such a book? Let me try to answer these questions by way of an introduction to this book. One might expand the question and ask why should a Christian read any ancient text, be it a Gospel, a letter from an early Christian leader, or the Didache? My answer is in three overlapping parts. First, members of every religious community—big or small—are always engaged in a process of forgetting some aspects