Dr. Joel C. Elowsky
The second lecture turns to the everyday life of the early church. Elowsky describes the common fund the deacons distributed, the temptation to misuse it, and the canons that held bishops accountable for the poor. He reads the Epistle to Diognetus and Tertullian’s Apology on the monthly treasury that buried the poor and relieved prisoners, and he closes with the monastic communities of Basil and Augustine, where authority was understood as a burden of love.