The Treasure Chest of the Early Christians: Faith, Care and Community from the Apostolic Age to Constantine the Great / David Batson

Integral to the rapid and startling growth of Christianity throughout the Mediterranean world in the first three centuries following the Crucifixion, were the early church’s systems for social caring – the ‘treasure chest’, or arca, of Tertullian, in which the Christian communities kept the offerings of the faithful collected for the poor, stands as a symbol of the application of faith to social welfare.

In this book David Batson highlights the interaction between Christianity and its social setting in the period from the Apostolic Age to the time of Constantine, and shows how the earliest believers cared for the needs of the destitute and deprived in anxious and dangerous times, eventually providing a model of social care unique in Late Antiquity. The role already developed by the Early Church as carer of the needy has contributed to the modern concept of care in the community.

The dominant themes continue to resonate down the centuries: the relationship between Church and State, the divergences between faith and practice, the conflict between traditionalism and modernity, the challenge of fundamentalism and the continuing reality of persecution.

Here is an invaluable introduction to the world of the first Christians, set against the complex background of Classical and Late Antique society.

David Batson was educated at Merchant Taylor’s, and King’s College, London. Ordained in the Church of England, he entered professional social work in 1969, combining this with a part-time parish ministry in the Diocese of Worcester. In 1978 he moved to Scotland, becoming Principal for Social Work Training in Dumfries and Galloway, a post he held until 1994. Since then he has devoted his time to writing and lecturing, and currently lectures in Social Studies at Dumfries and Galloway College. He is a member of the North American Patristics Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. He is currently writing a book on the Stylite Saints.