Meet the Early-day Saints Episode 6: Worship and Ritual, with Mark D. Ellison

Meet the Early-Day Saints: A Wayfare Limited Series

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Meet the Early-day Saints Episode 6: Worship and Ritual, with Mark D. Ellison

"Some scriptures proclaim God is one, and others say God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Early Christians did the best they could to come to an understanding and the way they did is quite beautiful."

Mark Ellison

and

Blair Hodges

Apr 30, 2023

The beliefs of early Christians are deeply woven together with their practices–the rituals they performed in worship of God. Mark D. Ellison takes us back to the first few centuries of Christianity, where believers recited the Lord’s prayer, followed a sacred calendar with feasts and celebrations, lit lamps at the close of each day, practiced baptism, and more.

About the Guest

Mark D. Ellison is associate professor of ancient scripture at Brigham Young University. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s from BYU, a master’s in religious studies (Bible and Archaeology) from the University of Southern Florida, and a master’s and PhD in Early Christianity and Early Christian Art from Vanderbilt University.

About the Host

Blair Hodges earned a bachelor’s degree in communications (journalism) at the University of Utah and a master’s degree in religious studies at Georgetown University. He hosts Fireside with Blair Hodges and previously hosted the Maxwell Institute Podcast at Brigham Young University.

Cover art by Charlotte Condie

Discussion about this podcast

Meet the Early-Day Saints: A Wayfare Limited Series

Welcome to Meet the Early-Day Saints, a limited series produced and hosted by Blair Hodges.

In Meet the Early-day Saints, Blair will take you on a journey through time to meet the earliest disciples of Jesus. You’ll learn from a wide range of esteemed Latter-day Saint scholars who reveal the similarities and differences between ancient Christian faith and ours today. Throughout the series, some of your common assumptions may be challenged and in the process you’ll gain a deeper understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Each guest is a contributor to the new book Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints, from the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship.

In our first episode, we ask what if the “Great Apostasy” wasn’t so great after all? Latter-day Saint scholar Jason R. Combs invites us to revisit our assumptions about the Christians who came before us. We discuss his chapter “Understanding Ancient Christians, Apostasy, and Restoration,” from the book Ancient Christians: An Introduction for Latter-day Saints.

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