Eucharist & Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries

by Werner Elert

This book examines the nature of church fellowship in the early history of the church. It explores the vocabulary of fellowship in the Christian community and the evidence from agreement in the confession of the faith and church practice in the Lord's Supper.

Genres: Theology

246 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Rick Stuckwisch · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly classic piece of work, as timely and timeless as ever. Profound theological insight and scholarly discussion from the Holy Scriptures and the doctrine and practice of the early church.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author does a nice job of looking at the significance of the Eucharist for church fellowship in the early church. Many in modern Christendom find the idea of "closed communion" an affront to church fellowship, but that stems from a misunderstanding of what all fellowship entails and the significance of the Lord's Supper in relation to it. This book nicely summarizes what the early church practiced and taught within the local assembly and between competing doctrinal groups as heresy and heterodoxy were drawing battle lines. This would be useful for understanding how to approach the Lord's Supper today.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Next to 1 Corinthians and the Verba themselves, this is the greatest defense of closed communion ever written.

[David]

The master work on church fellowship. Elert's scholarship is bulletproof, showing how the ancient church practiced closed communion as drawn from Sacred Scripture. If you read only one Elert book, this is the one to read.