Did the Early Christians Build Churches? Revisiting the Evidence

This study proposes a new paradigm for understanding the evolution of Christian architecture prior to the Constantinian Peace (ca. 314 C.E.). Through close reading and textual criticism, the author revisits the written evidence for ante-pacem Christian architecture, contextualising it in the light of historical developments and the limited archaeological evidence. From this analysis, it is argued that early Christians did, in fact, possess a ‘churchgoing consciousness’. That is, the documents reveal that the earliest Christians gradually shifted away from a eucharistic praxis centred on the homes of the community patrons towards the communal use of dedicated worship centres, designed particularly for the liturgical needs of eucharistic worship.

Alexander Turpin is a Roman Catholic priest who currently serves in parish ministry on Long Island, New York, U.S.A. He pursued postgraduate studies in liturgy in Rome and Washington D.C. With Kimberly Hope Belcher and Nathan P. Chase, he is the co-author of One Baptism – One Church? A Theology and History of the Reception of Baptized Christians (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2024). His scholarship on liturgical theology and history has also appeared in Antiphon, Ecclesia Orans, Questions Liturgiques, and Worship.