About this Book

This book offers a breadth of focus on community or "common life" in various Christian eras, that is, how that life is pictured both in texts and in early Christian art. Readers will find opportunity here to become current regarding what has been said and what is being said about how religious communities have defined themselves and how they have been seen by outsiders. In addition, readers will learn more about the origins of monasticism (a claim for a very early date is made), about Jewish and Christian relations in the early centuries, about house churches, and much more.