Early Church Fathers

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I was reading a little bit today from the Coming Home website, and I picked up a few quotes from Jim Anderson’s conversion story. He quoted some of the church fathers, and I will insert a few of the quotes below. (I hope I haven’t made any mistakes in my cutting and pasting.)​

St. Clement: “Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry” (1 Clement 44:1-2).

St. Ignatius, on the topic of the Eucharist: “They [the heretics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again” (Smyrneans 7:1). …… Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. (Smyrneans 8:1-2)

St. Irenaeus: … the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times. …For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition (Against Heresies 3, 3, 1-2).​

How many of you Catholics are aware of these quotes?

Were you taught about the early church fathers as a child in your Sunday School classes?

Or learned about this later as an adult?

Or is this as new to you as it is to me?

My impression: These quotes seem to me to be such a straightforward argument for the validityof the Catholic position. I am rather amazed (if they are accurate quotes). …And I say that coming from a Protestant point of view!
 
I am familiar with the quotes you gave. I learned of them as an adult, through personal study on my own. As a child, our religion classes did not include the writings of the early Church fathers.
 
johnshark - I just bought the book “Four Witnesses” on Amazon.com. Thanks for the recommendation

COPLAND 3 - I’m going to click on your website on read what you’ve got to say. Thanks.
 
I knew about them but had never read anything they had written and had no idea what they talked about until much later, after I started researching the church, church history, etc…

They are a fountain of knowledge we need to grow in, defend and explain our faith to others.
 
Idaho said:

I was reading a little bit today from the Coming Home website, and I picked up a few quotes from Jim Anderson’s conversion story. He quoted some of the church fathers, and I will insert a few of the quotes below. (I hope I haven’t made any mistakes in my cutting and pasting.)​

St. Clement: “Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife for the office of bishop. For this reason, therefore, having received perfect foreknowledge, they appointed those who have already been mentioned, and afterwards added the further provision that, if they should die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry” (1 Clement 44:1-2).

St. Ignatius, on the topic of the Eucharist: “They [the heretics] abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer, because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, Flesh which suffered for our sins and which the Father, in His goodness, raised up again” (Smyrneans 7:1). …… Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop, or by one whom he appoints. (Smyrneans 8:1-2)

St. Irenaeus: … the tradition of the Apostles which has been made known throughout the whole world. And we are in a position to enumerate those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles, and their successors to our own times. …For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all Churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world; and it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the Apostolic tradition (Against Heresies 3, 3, 1-2).​

How many of you Catholics are aware of these quotes?

Were you taught about the early church fathers as a child in your Sunday School classes?

Or learned about this later as an adult?

Or is this as new to you as it is to me?

My impression: These quotes seem to me to be such a straightforward argument for the validityof the Catholic position. I am rather amazed (if they are accurate quotes). …And I say that coming from a Protestant point of view!
Click to expand...
Could you give me the exact “coming home” website. When I google I get lots of strange coming home websites.
 
Hello, Thistle

chnetwork.org/index.html

If you click on “continue” it takes you to a welcome page where you can click on further resources.
That’s where I clicked on Jim Anderson’s testimony.
They have a good forum there, too. It’s similar to this forum.

Regards,
Idaho
 
We studied Four Witnesses this fall and my favorite was Justin Martyr who described the early Christian worship to the Romans - and amazingly 😉 it sounded just like our mass.
 
I know of the importance of the Curch Fathers now, but as a kid in school you don’ hear much about them. It’s kind of a shame, but I guess our cathechism teachers have a lot of ground to cover.
 
In early November, I purchased The Fathers by Pope Benedict XVI (ISBN: 978-1592764402). It is a collection of weekly audiences he gave over the course of about a year on 26 Fathers of the Church, from Pope St. Clement I to the ubiquitous St. Augustine. In the span of 200 pages (an average of less than 8 pages per Father), His Holiness talks about the lives of these men, the times they lived in, and the things they wrote. The chapters are quick and easy reading, given the Pope’s fluid style of writing and speaking. The book can be absorbed all in one sitting, or spaced over days or weeks. (I read two Fathers a day, a very leisurely pace.)

If you are looking for a primer on the thoughts of the early builders of the Church’s sacramental, ecclesial, and spiritual theology, I strongly recommend this book. It works as a refresher for someone who has been away from the lives and writings of these men for some time just as well as it works as an introductory course (taught by the Pope, no less!) for the beginner. If you have considered starting to get into patristic writing (such as is found at CCEL or New Advent), read this book first.

If you prefer to read things digitally (or you just need to save a few bucks), you can find the Pope’s addresses online as well. Start here (beginning with Pope St. Clement of Rome from 7 March 2007) and work your way here (ending with St. Augustine from 9 January 2008 through 27 February 2008). You can keep reading, too, because although the book ends with St. Augustine, Pope Benedict continued his weekly audiences on ten more people (from Pope St. Leo the Great on 5 March 2008 to St. Maximus the Confessor on 25 June 2008).
 
Thanks for the link, japhy. I checked it out. Online is quicker than ordering books. 🙂

As this has piqued my interest, I have ordered some other Catholic books; they are not on the church fathers, but rather on the topic of Catholic apologetics in general.
Of course there is never enough time to do all the reading and studying that I would like to do. But at least for this week (vacation), it’s nice to have a little extra time to read through this forum, as well as other resources.

I’ll check in on some of more of Pope Benedict’s addresses at another time.

Thanks again.
 
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