Throughout the history of Christianity, "reformers," by whatever name, have aspired to return to "the early Church." The Church of their own day fails to live up to what they think Christianity should be, and they desire to return to the early Church as described in the New Testament and early Christian literature.
Kenneth Whitehead shows in this book how, according to these same sources, the early Church was already in all essential respects the same Church as the Catholic Church of today. The Church consists of believers in Christ who profess her creed and are subject to the authority of her hierarchy, just as the first Christians accepted the preaching of the apostles chosen by Jesus and were subject to their authority (as can abundantly be seen in the Acts of the Apostles). The Church of Christ purveys both word and sacrament for the sake of the sanctification and salvation of her members through the ministry of ordained priests and bishops, all of whom are ultimately under the authority of the bishop of Rome, the Pope. All these things were also strictly true of "the early Church" - as demonstrated in this book.
Unlike other works of apologetics, this book takes an historical approach, looking at the Church as she was first established by Jesus, and then showing that the Catholic Church of today possesses and preserves all the features of that same early Church. Whitehead uses many direct quotes from the actual sources in the New Testament and early literature.
"Tackling every neuralgic issue from doctrine to liturgy to ecclesiastical structure, Whitehead leads the reader to the inexorable conclusion that if one of the Twelve Apostles walked into the local Catholic church and the local independent "Bible church," he would recognize the former as his own and the latter as an aberration. Done with charity and theological precision, this work is destined to become a staple in the libraries of apologists."
-Fr. Peter M.J. Stravinskas
Editor, The Catholic Answer
