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There is much that the church today can learn from the worship of the early church, particularly in the second century. This was a time when increasing numbers of gentiles were coming to the church with little or no previous knowledge of the Judeo-Christian tradition. How did the church train and instruct those who wished to join it? How did its worship, particularly in baptism and in communion, respond to the challenge of shaping and nurturing believers who would have to live their faith in a hostile environment? Today the church begins to face similar conditions. Growing numbers around us have little or no idea what our faith is all about. As such people seek membership in the church, and as we all seek ways to be faithful in the present environment, we have much to learn from the church in those earlier times, and particularly from its worship. La iglesia de hoy tiene mucho que aprender del culto de la iglesia antigua, particularmente de la iglesia durante el siglo segundo. En aquel tiempo cada vez eran más los gentiles se acercaban a la iglesia sin saber mucho de la tradición judeo-cristiana. ¿Cómo era que la iglesia instruía y adiestraba a quienes deseaban unirse a ella? ¿En qué modos el culto de la iglesia respondía al reto de formar y nutrir a aquellos creyentes que tendrían que vivir en un ambiente hostil? Hoy la iglesia se enfrenta a retos semejantes. Cada vez son más nuestros contemporáneos que saben bien poco acerca de la fe cristiana. Cuando tales personas piden unirse a la iglesia, y cuando nosotros mismos buscamos cómo ser fieles en el ambiente de hoy, la iglesia de aquellos tiempos tiene mucho que enseñarnos, particularmente en lo que se refiere al culto.
About the author
Catherine Gunsalus Gonzalez is Professor Emerita of Church History at Columbia Theological Seminary. She is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), and was the first woman to preach on
The Protestant Hour in 1974. With her husband, Justo L. Gonzalez, she wrote
The Liberating Pulpit, published by Abingdon Press.
