In Life and in Death: How the Testimony of the Early Church Transformed Their World

The early church was faced with communicating and explaining the gospel of the Crucified Messiah as Saviour of the World to a society with a very different worldview. The principle of St. Paul - "To the Jew first" - necessitated an apologetic in the context of the synagogue, and the second part, "and then to the Greek“, entailed gaining an understanding of the prevalent Greek and Roman religion and philosophy. Communicating the gospel was never a mere intellectual or verbal exercise, but rather demanded a witness of life, word and deed together, and a common witness of the fellowship of believers. What can we learn from the early Christians in this regard? It is the aim of this talk to look at some of the Early Christian sources and transport their experience into our time.