Everett Ferguson is Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Abilene Christian University. He was editor of 'The Encyclopedia of Early Christianity' (2nd ed., 1997) and is author of many works including 'Early Christians Speak' (2 volumes 1999, 2002); 'Backgrounds of Early Christianity' (3rd ed., 2003); 'Inheriting Wisdom: Readings for Today from Ancient Christian Writers' (2004); 'Church History, vol. 1: From Christ to Pre-Reformation' (2005); and 'Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries' (2009). Ferguson received the "Distinguished Service Award" from the North American Patristics Society (2008) and the "Vestigia Award for Excellence in Early Christian Studies and Service to the Church" from the Wheaton Center for Early Christian Studies (2002).

• AcknowledgmentsAbbreviations1 Images of the Church in Early Christian Literature2 Attitudes to Schism at the Council of Nicaea3 A Note on Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses IV.8.34 Ordination in the Ancient Church, I: Greek, Roman, and Jewish Backgrounds5 Ordination in the Ancient Church, II: The Ceremony of Ordination6 Ordination in the Ancient Church, III: Ordination in the Second and Third Centuries7 Ordination and the Early Church, IV: Ordination in the First Century8 Selection and Installation to Office in Roman, Greek, Jewish, and Christian Antiquity9 Jewish and Christian Ordination: Some Observations10 Qumran and Codex D11 Origen and the Election of Bishops12 Eusebius and Ordination13 Laying on of Hands: Its Significance in Ordination14 The Covenant Idea in the Second Century15 Justin Martyr on Jews, Christians, and the Covenant16 Canon Muratori: Date and Provenance17 The Muratorian Fragment and the Canon: Review of Hahneman18 Pseudepigraphy: Post-Canonical Letters19 Factors Leading to the Selection and Closure of the New Testament CanonBibliographyIndex of Ancient DocumentsIndex of Subjects

These essays, spanning four decades of Ferguson's scholarship, sum up major discussions of ministry and canon in early Christianity. Especially useful for exploring the terminology surrounding ordination, these essays are vintage Ferguson.