The Original Bishops: Office and Order in the First Christian Communities
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
This work provides a new starting point for studying the origins of church offices. Alistair Stewart, a leading authority on early Christianity and a meticulous scholar, provides essential groundwork for historical and theological discussions. Stewart refutes a long-held consensus that church offices emerged from collective leadership at the end of the first century. He argues that governance by elders was unknown in the early centuries and that bishops emerged at the beginning of the church; however, they were nothing like bishops of a later period. The church offices as presently known emerged in the late second century. Stewart debunks widespread assumptions and misunderstandings, offers carefully nuanced readings of the ancient evidence, and fully interacts with pertinent secondary scholarship.
- Title: The Original Bishops: Office and Order in the First Christian Communities
- Author: Alistair C. Stewart
- Publisher: Baker Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2014
- Logos Release Date: 2015
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Church history › Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Bishops › History; Church officers › History; Church polity › History
- ISBNs: 9781441219978, 9780801049217, 1441219978, 0801049210
- Resource ID: LLS:ORIGINALBISHOPS
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:04:53Z