Early church fathers collection

[jasev]

(This doesn’t seem to be the place to ask about a collection of the church fathers… but I can’t find a better category on the forum and do see other threads about the fathers here. If there is a better place for this please just let me know.)

I’ve been enjoying the collection of the church fathers from Christian Classics Ethereal Library on the Internet (translator/editor was Philip Schaff). I’m curious as to whether there is as complete a set in English done by RCC translators/editors with or without RCC notes/commentary. If there is, I’m further interested to know if it is believed there is any appreciable difference in the works.

Thanks.

 

[YADA]

(This doesn’t seem to be the place to ask about a collection of the church fathers… but I can’t find a better category on the forum and do see other threads about the fathers here. If there is a better place for this please just let me know.)

I’ve been enjoying the collection of the church fathers from Christian Classics Ethereal Library on the Internet (translator/editor was Philip Schaff). I’m curious as to whether there is as complete a set in English done by RCC translators/editors with or without RCC notes/commentary. If there is, I’m further interested to know if it is believed there is any appreciable difference in the works.

Thanks.

catholicfreeshipping.com/Products/cfs_gensym-43.html

The Faith of the Early Church Fathers by William Jurgens … 3 Volumes …

 

[jasev]

Oh yeah! Actually, I have this set already. It doesn’t seem to be nearly as complete. Most of the works in it are only fragments of the originals. Justin Martyr’s first apology, for example, only contains tiny portions of what is in Schaff and other translations I’ve been able to find online. If I understand this series correctly it looks to be a collection of “proof texts” with doctrinal summaries in the back… kind of a source book to prove the historicity of Catholic doctrine. Is that accurate?

 

[YADA]

Oh yeah! Actually, I have this set already. It doesn’t seem to be nearly as complete. Most of the works in it are only fragments of the originals. Justin Martyr’s first apology, for example, only contains tiny portions of what is in Schaff and other translations I’ve been able to find online. If I understand this series correctly it looks to be a collection of “proof texts” with doctrinal summaries in the back… kind of a source book to prove the historicity of Catholic doctrine. Is that accurate?

Jurgens does cross referecne [link] the Scriptures and also Dooctrine to the various writings. He also references the various sources of the works … I have always understood this work by Jurgens to translate the fragments [extant] that exist …

While others have produced collections that seem more complete but not exactly from an early complete work. Those works attempt to ‘re-create’ more complete works by compiling references to the original works, later collections of writings that make reference to the originals or identify a portion as being from an earlier work, in addition to the extant fragments …

Perhaps I mis-understood that … but like the scriputes, few of the earliest extant scriptures are complete, whole as it were …

 

[Mintaka]

The Catholic University of America’s press has a huge series going of modern translations of all the works of the Fathers. At present, 120 volumes’ worth. The ones that went out of print in hardback are currently in print in paperback, which is nice! There are book catalogs on their site to tell you what’s available in what format. (However, books intended for hundreds of years of library use can be pricey, so don’t get sticker shock at the price of the hardbacks. Even the trade paperbacks are pricey, probably because they’re printed in small quantities or because they’re big enough to choke goats.)

Here’s the list of the patristic translations over at CUA Press:
cuapress.cua.edu/BOOKS/Supplementary/FCINDEX.cfm#PS

It’s called The Fathers of the Church Series.

They’re also doing non-Fathers stuff, which is called the Library of Early Christianity.

So if you want to read some translations, they’ve got them for you. (If you’ve got a big university library around, they may already have them there.) The old Victorian set at CCEL is barely a fraction of the size of this. I’ve seen libraries who have good chunks of the series, and it’s enough to make you weep or drool to see them all together.

There are plenty of other people out there translating individual works of the Fathers into English, and there are other series and sets around. (Most notably, the “Popular Patristics” series from the Russian Orthodox US guys at the St. Vladimir Seminary Press. Much cheaper trade paperbacks, for sure. They have a good reputation.) It’s pretty much a matter of poking around to find stuff.