The Ancient Church

The growth of early Christianity becomes an argument about how churches should be governed in W. D. Killen's historical study. Covering the first three hundred years, it follows the teaching of Christ, the work of the apostles, and the development of doctrine, worship and church offices. Killen places these subjects within the Roman world and examines the pressures faced by Christian communities as their institutions changed.

His account openly brings Presbyterian convictions to questions of historical evidence. A substantial discussion challenges the authenticity of letters attributed to Ignatius, explaining why their acceptance matters to competing accounts of early church government. Readers interested in Christian origins will find both a survey of the period and a nineteenth-century historian's case about authority, ceremony and the interpretation of surviving documents. The book also shows how disagreements about ancient sources can shape later religious debates.