Questions about the early church

[DRDS]

Hey guys, I was wanting to learn more about the early Christian church especially the generations immediately following after the deaths of the apostles. I was curious do we have any accurate info on the church back then or was the history re written by the catholic church right around the time they become very corrrupt? Is this why not much is said about the church from the apostles all the way up until the reformers?

I would love to learn about how the early church worshiped, what their songs sounded like, what their sermons or messages were and so on. I would love to capture the same kind of feel or demeanor the early church had, at least, up until they became corrupt.

Also, how long did it take roughly for the early church to become what is known today as the catholic church with all the rituals, rich/spectacular appearence, and the almost near worship of Mary and other Biblical figures?

Did the early church get corrupt very fast or like most other things, did it get corrupt gradually over time?

Anyways, thank you all again for your time, God bless.

[MarcusOfLycia]

It took an awfully long time to become what is now the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. It was a slow progression and there were a lot of external influences that replaced the traditional Judaeo-Christian viewpoint with a Graeco-Christian viewpoint (Augustine is especially guilty of this, as much as I like his stuff).

I found very helpful the iTunes university course lectures from RTS (Reformed Theological Seminary) on church history. The first series has about 23 episodes, each the length of a college lecture (that's what they are), and covering the start of the church through the early middle ages. There is so much material there it boggles the mind, and I felt it was presented very fairly. Check it out. It helped me a ton!