{"id":835,"date":"2009-12-09T06:43:32","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T12:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/?p=835"},"modified":"2015-03-13T17:03:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T22:03:42","slug":"didache-blog-tour-day-eight-a-special-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tonyjones\/2009\/12\/09\/didache-blog-tour-day-eight-a-special-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Didache Blog Tour – Day Eight: A Special Question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

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Facsimilie of the Didache Titulous<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The inimitable Carol Showalter, marketing guru at Paraclete Press, put this blog tour together, and she had the good sense to ask Jonathan Brink<\/a> to ponder a special question: Is this text \u2013 The Didache \u2013 really so important? Why? Do we know that it was important to the earliest communities of Christians?<\/em><\/p>\n

Jonathan answers that question in the affirmative, and in two parts.\u00a0 First,<\/p>\n

The Didache focuses on what it means to be a follower through action, as opposed to a stricter western focus of simply belief.\u00a0 The emphasis is on love, which reveals life.<\/p>\n

And second,<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t ignore a book that focuses on love, which also existed before any Christian theology is developed.\u00a0 In other words, the absence of a Christian theology means its raw.\u00a0 It\u2019s the first exposure we have to what the early followers of Jesus were wrestling with.\u00a0 And it just happened to be on the practice of love.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t seem to get bogged down into doctrinal issues\u2026They focused on love. This has to inform the conversation.<\/p>\n

Of course, I agree with Jonathan.\u00a0 I think the Didache is going to catch on, in a big way, and especially with those of us who are scouting out new and primitive and \u201cauthentic\u201d (overused, I know) ways to follow Jesus.\u00a0 And, if you read the book you\u2019ll see, the best way for us to do that is to really get inside the heads of the earliest Christians who put the Didache together.<\/p>\n

Online Resources:<\/strong><\/p>\n