I finally finished reading One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic: The Early Church was the Catholic Church by Kenneth D. Whitehead. It took me a long time because of the Olympics, the parish Festival, and several other distractions. It is also quite dense, both in the appearance of the text, and the richness of meaning.
Whitehead defends the faith against the idea that the early Church was just a bunch of people who met in a free-form way until the Roman government got involved. He explains how the Eucharist was celebrated and how the Church was led. He goes into great detail about the early primacy of Rome, including how a reading of both the Church Fathers and the leading heretics will show that the bishop of Rome held a special place in the early Church.
I found the book very interesting, and I plan to read it again to really absorb it. I am becoming more interested in Church history and how things got to be the way they are. I would recommend this book if you’re interested in how the papacy became what it is today.
Filed under: Books
