Worship in the Early Church

by Justo L. González, Catherine Gunsalus González

While many histories of Christian worship exist, this project undertakes a task both more focused and more urgent. Rather than survey the whole history of the Christian church, it focuses on the formative period between the first and fifth centuries CE, when so many of the understandings and patterns of Christian worship came to be. And rather than include such developments as the monastic hours of prayer and the history of ordination, the authors deal primarily with those aspects of worship that recur on a weekly or regular preaching, Eucharist, and baptism. The book divides its subject into three period. It begins with the emerging worship of the New Testament era. It moves to the second and third centuries, when the church’s main tasks of establishing its identity in relation to its Jewish roots and making its way in a hostile Roman environment showed up in its theology and practice of worship. And it concludes with the fourth and fifth centuries, when introducing the increasing numbers of converts after Constantine to Christian faith became one of the highest priorities of the church’s worship. This resource will serve as a valuable guide to the historical developments that brought about Christian worship as we know it today.

Genres: History, Church History, Audiobook, Theology, Christianity, Church, Christian

302 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 13, 2022

About the author

Justo L. González, author of the highly praised three-volume History of Christian Thought and other major works, attended United Seminary in Cuba, received his MA at Yale, and was the youngest person to be awarded a PhD in historical theology at Yale. He is one of the few first generation Latino theologians to come from a Protestant background. He helped to found the Association for Hispanic Theological Education and the Hispanic Theological Initiative. Dr González is now on the faculty of the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta.

Reviews

[Haley Baumeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing primer on preaching, communion, and baptism in the the early part of the Christian church's existence.

It was fascinating to hear how even in the beginning, difference of interpretation, emphasis, and practice were at play. By the end, I was grateful the author stated he hoped the information here would serve *both* as a help and a warning to our own collective practices within our traditions, denominations, and churches.

*It's probably safe to say we all desperately need to be learning more church history (myself included). Good thing multiple people have recommended his two-volume "The Story Of Christianity." Worth a read, it seems!

[Deryk Rumbold · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is the best kind of persuasive text. Objectivity in its history and context that is complete and wide in its scope. It really doesn't even reveal which way the author is pulling you explicitly until the end. With all the wide range of historical backdrops then ending thesis is simple, "the Church needs to BE living in Christ not just only know about Christ." Fascinating and well constructed. A good primer on this period of Christian history that was most definitely a blind spot for me.

[Hashim · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a new movement in Christianty where church leaders are urging the faithful to revive the worship practices of the early church. We're told that if we just pray like monks, or separate into house churches, or teach the gospel in a more exact way then our churches will grow like they did in the 1st century.

In "Worship in the Early Church", Catherine and Justo González blow up the easy view of the past, yet end with their own suggestions for retrieving wisdom from the long heritage of Christianity.

The book emphasizes the variety of worship practices in the early church, both across geography and time. To make the history easy to follow, the Gonzalez's break up the book into 4 distinct movements, and focus just on preaching, communion, and baptism.

Instead of dumping trivia and factoids on the reader, the book tells a story with the emphasis on why a worship practice evolved. Sometimes it was borrowed from Jewish practices, other times it reflected Greco/Roman influences, and often it was specific to a practice instituted by Jesus and the Apostles.

So much of my Christian life is bundled up as a set of traditions I inherited. So it was fascinating to discover the seeds of my worship laid out in this book.

The Gonzalez's end the book with concrete and purposely restrained ideas on how worship practices from the past can be used to solve issues in today's Christian communities.

I won't list them here, except for one that I deeply agree with. Our churches need to devote time to teaching the brilliant, inspiring, and sometimes ugly history of our faith. We need the encouragement and warnings that only our rich collective story can teach us.

I recommend starting by reading this book.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

(The great audiobook binge of 2025 is almost at an end, in which I've been listening to a number of books from my reading list which I probably wouldn't have otherwise got round to buying and reading, if not for a three-month subscription special offer.)

With the days running out until my cut-price subscription comes to an end, I squeezed this one in at 1.2x speed, spending too many hours with my headphones on during the weekend. I'm glad I did though, because it was really good.

Fascinating historical stuff about the forms and evolution of Christian worship - preaching, baptism and communion mainly - covering three main periods from the New Testament context until about 410 AD/CE (the Sacking of Rome). I wish there had been a bit more about music - but apparently the historical data isn't really there unfortunately. It's an introductory text, but there's a good amount of engaging with, and quoting from, the source texts - those ancient voices brought to life.

In these audiobook reviews, I've sometimes made mention of the narrator. The narrator on this one was excellent and very pleasant to listen to... a quirky little tendency to pronounce 'worship' as 'warship' notwithstanding... haha

(One last audiobook from this listening binge to go... a little 2-hour text by Bonhoeffer on the psalms.)

[Steve Coombs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps I was just the wrong audience for this book - I assumed it was targeted towards people who already had an interest in church history. If so, then the first half of the book feels painfully basic, either giving a large amount of basic foundational information or repeatedly saying "we don't really know much about this time period."

The last 40% of so of the book is much more interesting as it engages in more detail with a variety of texts (though it seems like it would lose the reader who needed so much introduction). The Protestant bias becomes more apparent here as the authors criticize most of the developments, especially in the West, after the 4th century, though I found myself agreeing with most of their assessments.

Would have liked to see more of an analysis of what weekly rhythms of worship looked like for "average Christians", as it felt like that mostly got lost in the discussions of texts and Sunday services.

[Jordan Carl · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Justo Gonzalez is a wonderful read. I listened to the audiobook, so the structure was at first confusing. However, after about 1/3rd the way in, I caught the rhythm. The authors goal was to describe the elements of worship and their development throughout the first 5 centuries of Christian history. They examined preaching, prayer, singing, baptism, and The Lord’s Supper, as well as the architecture and artistry of the church. They examined each of the elements in different epochs (33-100 AD, 100-313, 313-400, 400-500). I was particularly moved by the consistency of the elements throughout the ages. We truly have a faith and for all delivered to the saints. Praise our unchanging God!

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

A reasonable overview of early Christian worship. It seemed a bit rambling at first and the focus on Jewish practices seemed to have more focus than the title suggested it would. I was also a bit disappointed in their presentation of Jamnia (which is more speculation than anything) and its role in the OT canon, which was probably negligible. That aspect and a few others seemed to lead to overly positive assertions where the evidence did not allow for it. Once they were on more solid ground with the sources, this was an interesting look at the worship of the early church and they did a good job of showing why this subject is quite relevant for the present.

[Colin Weeks · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was mostly a fun and easy to read book. The four eras covered (1st century, 2nd-3rd centuries, 4th century, barbarian invasions) are observed systematically, covering preaching, baptism, communion, worship spaces and holidays.

I disagreed with some of the authors’ presuppositions, particularly on infant baptism suddenly developing in later centuries and on gender issues being based more on the cultural moment than on the teaching of Scripture. However the conclusive encouragements were good: the need to rediscover mystery in worship, a return to catechesis in the church, and the necessity for confession of sin in order to grasp true Christian joy.

Read for a church history class.

[Holland Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook and wrote a paper on it. What was good about it is that it had a pretty exhaustive list of using the primary sources in order to determine what the early church looked like, and it also focused on facts and less so speculation. However, I think it needed more speculation and a deeper focus on the first two centuries rather than diving into the third century as well. When Constantine becomes emperor I feel like we lose almost everything of what the early church stood for and looked like. So if it just got rid of the 150 pages dedicated to those time periods and focused on even more understanding of the period before, I would have enjoyed it much more.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a ton of information packed in this book that I will have to go back in dig into the bibliography and read up on some of things Gonzalez covered quickly. Excellent book to help understand how we got where we are with our rituals in the church, I recommend.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good history of worship in the early church, moving from the first century to the Crusades. The main detractor is that it has a more Western focus, which is to be expected given the authors' backgrounds. \

[Michal Šubert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, helped me see the development of worship - preaching, baptism, communion, Christian calendar, and its practices over time till the 5th century. Well written, clear, and cohesive, it was fun to listen to.

[Ron Willoughby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wise. Insightful. Well-researched. Excellent.

[Drew Timmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating retelling of the early church, it’s worship practices, and developments and changes over time. Lots to reflect on, and so much I didn’t know. Highly recommend, but it’s a hefty read!

[C.S. Areson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected but it was informative.

[Ming Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good. Nothing remarkable to note except that the authors cover multiple aspects of the early church like catechumens or the sacraments, detailing evidence from the church fathers and other resources.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this more than I expected to, very informative and comprehensive.