12/23/20
Jungmann, Josef A., S.J. "Chapter Two: The Church as a Worshipping Community." The Early Liturgy to the Time of Gregory the Great. (translated by Francis A. Brunner, C.S.S. R., Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1959, pp. 10-18.
Jungmann sees Jesus' teaching to have a primary goal of enhancing personal piety. Yet he allows that there was a distinctive type of liturgy in use, particularly surrounding the temple worship (Jungmann 1959, 10). John 4, along with Romans 12, may suggest the temple worship and its forms will come to an end, to be replaced by a more self-mediated type of worshiop. Jungmann sees this as the conclusion of the Jews against Stephen in Acts 6-7 (Jungmann 1959, 11). Yet Jungmann is clear that the individual elements of worship do not preclude the existence of a Church, founded by Jesus, with visible attributes, assembly, and liturgy (Jungmann 1959, 12).
The early Christians clearly assembled together. Jungmann commends the letters of Ignatius to the Ephesians and to the Smyrnans. He also endorses the chapter in Dix' The Shape of the Liturgy (1945) on the pre-Nicene liturgy (Jungmann 1959, 12). Hostility toward Christians may have been based in large part on their rejection of civic gatherings and their practice of assembling together (Jungmann 1959, 13). The earliest Christians, as attested in Acts, assembled in individual houses. Jungmann suggests archaeological evidence that there were known houses in Rome which served as churches from the very early times. By about the year 200 there were buildings clearly owned by the Church, used for assemblies (Jungmann 1959, 14).
The use of the catacombs bears brief discussion. Jungmann observes that these were most common only in Italy and served as burial sites. They were not well suited for assemblies due to the cramped spaces. A congregation would assemble rather in a house with a spacious atrium (Jungmann 1959, 15). Again, Jungmann refers to Dix as an authroity on places of Christian worship (Jungmann 1959, 15).
Jungmann does point out the fact that Christian worship was very different from pagan worship. "The Christian church is constructed for community meetings, whereas the pagan temple - whether that of early Babylon, or the temple built by Greek and Roman civilizations - was essentially intended as a dwelling of the deity" (Jungmann 1959, 16). The places used were correspondingly different .Christianity takes the assembled community as a primary attribute, rather than something happening by chance (Jungmann 1959, 17).