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Richard N. Longnecker, ed. Community Formation in the Early Church and in the Church Today. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002. Pp. 251. $19.95 (Paper).
Allen, Karl K.
Allen, Karl K.
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br4333.pdf
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"These twelve essays describe how “the Christian church is structured and its life expressed.” Divided into four groups, they describe the social context, biblical understanding, and historical formation of the early church, and conclude with three discussions of community formation among contemporary Protestant denominations. [2] Longnecker‟s introduction efficiently justifies and summarizes its general goal. He describes the evolution of a nineteenth century Protestant consensus regarding the formation and nature of the Christian Church. This consensus specifies that the organization of the church evolved gradually, and is not biblically or dogmatically specified. This consensus has ever since been dominant in Protestant circles. In this book Longnecker reviews that consensus in the light of current scholarly research. [3] The first three essays describe the social context of the early church. Richard. S. Ascough‟s “Greco-Roman Philosophic, Religious, and Voluntary Associations” describes the literary and archeological data informing us about the main types of organization available as the church was taking shape. Alan. F. Segal‟s “The Jewish Experience: Temple, Synagogues, Home and Fraternal Groups” describes the major institutions of Jewish life in the first two centuries C.E. “Building „an Association (Synodos) . . . and A Place of Their Own,‟” by Peter Richardson describes the early church‟s archaeological remains, attempting to deduce from them how the early church formed and operated. [4] All three essays are heavily influenced by the thesis that the early church was structured as a Greco-Roman voluntary association. Together the authors make a convincing case for this thesis. However, the functions and structures of voluntary associations were so broad that the thesis does not tell us as much as one might hope. For example, it leaves open the issue of how closely the new Christian church was related to Roman institutions vs. Jewish ones. Segal and Richardson both indicate that the synagogue was also structured as a voluntary association. But did the form of the church develop out of, in parallel with, or in dialog with the form of the synagogue?"(pg 1)
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2005
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With permission of the license/copyright holder