The book is The Second Church by Ramsay MacMullin and is of interest because it points out just how people on their own, apart from clerical directions, understood and practiced faith. It has a discussion of the archeology of the first known house church, in Dura, present-day Iraq. And a fascinating description of a cathedral built right over the cemetery places where people feasted together with their dead--pouring a bit in wine through an opening in the grave. We (perhaps just I) usually think of house churches as early, but this Second Church, right after the religion became official, offers a glimpse into a quite different landscape of practice. It also makes it easier to understand how people could have listened to Chrysostom's sermons about sex: they didn't, because the only people in his cathedral were upper class, and the elite men had complete license to do what they m might. The bulk of the people just were not there at all. We are all congregational in our beginnings.