In the early years, Christian congregations looked to the apostles and prophets for leadership. But before the end of the first century, the apostles and prophets were systematically eclipsed by the office of the bishop. Doomed Edifice examines the daily lives of the early Christians in the midst of paganism, the structure and worship of the early congregations, and traces events that led to deterioration of doctrine and the eventual ascendency of the institutional Church in the fourth century....
