Early Christian Communities Between Ideal and Reality

The authors of this volume explore the notion of community as reflected upon in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers. Various aspects are dealt with, including concerns for organising the community, developing a sacramental and liturgical praxis, constructing identity against outsiders, spreading the Christian message, and building towards a better community. The interplay between ideal and reality in the sources offers some reliable information about day-to-day concerns and concrete situations in Christian communities from the end of the first century up to about 150 CE.Joseph Verheyden/Mark Grundeken: Introduction - Andreas Lindemann: Sakramentale Praxis in Gemeinden des 2. Jahrhunderts - Clayton N. Jefford: The Didache and Eucharist: Signs of Community? - Taras Khomych: From Glorious Past to Miserable Present: First Clement on the Organisation of the Corinthian Community - John S. Kloppenborg: Pneumatic Democracy and the Conflict in 1 Clement - James Kelhoffer: If Second Clement Really Were a »Sermon,« How Would We Know, and Why Would We Care? Prolegomena to Analyses of the Writing's Genre and Community - Paul Foster: Christ and the Apostles in the Epistles of Ignatius of Antioch - Mark Grundeken: Baptism and Metanoia in the Shepherd of Hermas - Harry O. Maier: From Material Place to Imagined Space: Emergent Christian Community as Thirdspace in the Shepherd of Hermas - Judith Lieu: From Us But Not Of Us? Moving the Boundaries of the Community - James Carleton Paget: Barnabas and the Outsiders: Jews and Their World in the Epistle of Barnabas - Tobias Nicklas: Identitätsbildung durch Konstruktion der »Anderen«: Die Schrift Ad Diognetum