A Brief History of Sunday: From the New Testament to the New Creation
Overview
In this book noted Christian historian Justo González tells the story of how and why Christians have worshiped on Sunday from the earliest days of the church to the present.
After discussing the views and practices relating to Sunday in the ancient church, González turns to Constantine and how his policies affected Sunday observances. He then recounts the long process, beginning in the Middle Ages and culminating with Puritanism, whereby Christians came to think of and strictly observe Sunday as the Sabbath. Finally, González looks at the current state of things, exploring especially how the explosive growth of the church in the Majority World has affected the observance of Sunday worldwide.
Readers of this book will rediscover the joy and excitement of Sunday as the early church celebrated it and will find inspiration in an age of increasing indifference and hostility to Christianity.
Key Features
- Discusses Sunday as a day of worship throughout history
- Presents an authoritative yet accessible historical overview of Christian Sunday worship
Contents
- Part 1: Before Constantine
- Naming the Days
- When to Meet
- The Significance of the First Day of the Week
- Christian Practices on the First Day of the Week
- Part 2: From Constantine to the End of Antiquity
- Constantine and the New Imperial Policy
- Changes in Christian Worship
- Laws Regarding the Lord’s Day
- Christian View on the Sabbath
- Part 3: The Middle Ages
- A New Sunday Piety: From Feast to Funeral
- A Day to Pray and to Play
- Aquinas on Sunday and Sabbath
- Part 4: The Reformation and Beyond
- The Reformation
- British Puritanism and the Sabbath
- Seventh-Day Sabbatarianism
- The Continuation of Puritan Sabbatarianism
- Secularization and Renewal
Top Highlights
“Second, many may be surprised to learn that connecting Sunday with the fourth commandment finds very little warrant in the early church, and that calling Sunday ‘the Sabbath’ is a relatively new phenomenon.” (Page viii)
“The seven-day week as we now know it seems to have originated among the ancient Semitic and Mesopotamian peoples.” (Page 2)
“In brief, the first day of the week, most commonly called the Lord’s day—the kyriaka or dominica—was taken as a celebration of the three great events of salvation history. It was first of all the day of the resurrection of the Lord and therefore the beginning of the new creation. It was also the very first day of the first creation, and therefore a time to rejoice in the goodness of God’s bounty. And it was the eighth day of the week, and therefore a day of hope pointing to the consummation of all things.” (Page 31)
“It is interesting to notice that the author of Revelation, arguably the most immersed in Jewish culture and literature of all New Testament writers, seems to use the phrase ‘the day of the Lord’ to refer to a particular day in his own life. Most scholars agree that this is a reference to the day when the church would gather in worship to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.” (Page 10)
“This interpolation shows that, at least as late as the fourth century, some or perhaps even most Christians observed the Sabbath, and then the Lord’s day on the following day. In other words, the Lord’s day, celebrated on the first day of the week, was not a substitution for the Sabbath, but a separate celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.” (Page 23)
- Title: A Brief History of Sunday: From the New Testament to the New Creation
- Author: Justo L. González
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2017
- Logos Release Date: 2017
- Pages: 175
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Sunday › History
- ISBNs: 9780802874719, 0802874711
- Resource ID: LLS:BRIEFHSTSUNDAY
- Resource Type: text.monograph.church-history
- Metadata Last Updated: 2023-06-05T16:52:17Z
Dr. Justo L. González was born and raised in Cuba where he did his first university and seminary studies. In 1961 he became the youngest person to be awarded a Ph. D. in historical theology at Yale University. He is an ordained Minister of Word and Sacraments by the Methodist Church. For thirty years he taught in a variety of theological institutions. He has given hundreds of lectures in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Justo has written over one hundred books, although he is better known for his two-volume The Story of Christianity and his three-volume A history of Christian Thought, which have been translated into eight languages. Besides his passion for connecting theology with the life of the church through publications, his most cherished and valued activity is the mentoring and encouraging of Hispanics and other minority scholars. Today, as a retired professor, he devotes his time to research and writing and to promoting Latino theological education.
Sample Pages from the Print Edition
Reviews
1 rating
Glenn Crouch
11/16/2017
I had looked forward to reading this book, as it was going to cover all of Church History in respect to the role of Sunday - and I was not disappointed. I think the Author has done a fine job of covering a 2000 year period in a reasonably short book - and that he has been quite positive as he looked at the different approaches of various church groups and periods. I think the Author did a good job of his dealing with the events at the time of Constantine - which in current times I see often "distorted". What did surprise me is how much coverage of worship and liturgy, as well as a pretty involved coverage of Holy Communion, that the Author has many to include - especially when it comes to the Reformation side of things. An excellent easy-to-read book that covers a good chunk of Church History - as well as addresses many issues in regards Sunday (the Day of the Lord) and the Sabbath. Plus it has a nice section at the end for further reading, which I appreciated.