primitive church

American  

noun

1. the early Christian church, especially in reference to its earliest form and organization.

2. this church, especially as representative of Christianity in its supposedly purest form.

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Etymology

Origin of primitive church

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

A persuasive, lucid speaker, Dom Gregory is lecturing on the primitive church at Hobart, as he will at numerous other U.S. universities and Episcopalian centers during the next six months.

From Time Magazine Archive

Out of their evangelical preaching emerged a faith that tried to be not another denomination but a movement to restore the primitive church known by Jesus' followers.

From Time Magazine Archive

Such a belief yearns for a purer and more primitive church than anyone is likely to see, and something in Graham retains the nostalgia for that purity.

From Time Magazine Archive

I conclude with Cartwright,215 that those feasts of the primitive church “came by custom, and not by commandment, by the free choice of men, and not by constraint.”

From The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) by Gillespie, George

Zwingli drew his knowledge and faith from the Bible, holding that for authority one ought to return to it or to the primitive church.

From History of Human Society by Blackmar, Frank W. (Frank Wilson)