Temple Themes In Christian Worship

It has been the custom to seek the origins of Christian worship in the synagogue. By proposing a temple setting, a great deal more can be explained, and the existing rather limited resources can be more fruitfully used. The Old and New Testaments and early Christian writings consistently point to the temple setting. Working with primary sources in translation, it is possible to reconstruct something of the early Christian world view, which shows the Church as the conscious continuation of the temple worship, but this has been largely overlooked due to concentration on the Greek setting and sources. Temple Themes in Christian Worship will cover the following: baptism, both theology and practices, the Eucharist (with special emphasis on the symbolism of the elements), the significance of music and hymns, festivals and pilgrimage, use of the Scriptures (both what the early Christians used and how they were read), prayers, and the shape of church buildings.