Table of Contents
Reclaiming Catholic History: Series Introduction xiii
Chronology of The Early Church (33-313) xvii
Map xxii
Introduction: The Scholar's New Clothes xxv
Chapter 1 The Era of the Apostles 1
Up Close and Personal: Stephen 4
You Be the Judge: Weren't Christian holidays originally pagan holidays? 8
Up Close and Personal: Clement of Rome 11
You Be the Judge: Don't some books of the New Testament present Christ as divine and others present him as human? 17
Chapter 2 The Era of the Apostolic Fathers 19
Up Close and Personal: Ignatius of Antioch 22
Up Close and Personal: Polycarp of Smyrna 26
You Be the Judge: Didn't people in the early Church live much shorter lives than we do now? 33
You Be the Judge: Isn't all sin equal in the eyes of God? 37
Chapter 3 The Era of the Apologists 39
Up Close and Personal: Justin Martyr 41
You Be the Judge: Wasn't original Christian faith ruined by Greek thought? 45
Up Close and Personal: The Martyrs of Lyons and Vienne 50
You Be the Judge: Hasn't Christianity always taught that when you die, only your soul goes to heaven for eternity? 54
Chapter 4 The Era Of The Theologians 57
You Be the Judge: Wasn't the idea of orthodoxy foreign to Christianity until the fourth century? 64
Up Close and Personal: St. Perpetua 73
You Be the Judge: Didn't the Church silence the voices of people who didn't follow the dominant party line? 76
Chapter 5 The Era Of The Sacraments 79
Up Close and Personal: St. Valentine 86
Up Close and Personal: St. Lawrence 88
You Be the Judge: Isn't the Christianity of the early Church different from what developed later as Catholicism? 94
Chapter 6 The Era Of Tribulation 97
Up Close and Personal: St. Sebastian 98
You Be the Judge: Isn't the historical Jesus different from the Christ of the Christian religion? 101
You Be the Judge: Didn't Constantine create the marriage of church and state? 105
Just The Beginning 109
Notes 113
For Further Reading 119
Index 121