Christian Mission and Poverty

Chapter 1: Early Christian Teaching

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Discussion Questions

The Didache has some things to say about discerning human need. What are the needs in your community? How can you figure out what those needs are and help meet them? Are there any differences in the ways The Didache and Clement talk about giving? Which text pictures selling one’s goods and giving to the poor more literally and which pictures it more figuratively? Do you agree with one more than the other? Clement talks about the passions and desires of the soul being cast off. Are there passions or desires in you that God may want to remove, change, or redirect? What does The Didache mean when it tells us not to let our alms “sweat in our hands” and not to “stretch forth” our hands to receive? What is God calling you and your community to do with your hands? People in North America are some of the wealthiest in the world. What habit does Clement claim wealthy people must practice? What practices might God be calling North American Christians to engage in?