The Church Father

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I have seen on this forum that people have been mentioning a book called “the church fathers” or something of that nature. Is it something that is good for all religions to read about the first historical church? I have searched on amazon and it brings up this:
The Early Church Fathers - Ante Nicene Fathers Volume 1-Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Kindle Edition). Is this the book people are referring to?
 
I have the “Faith of the Early Fathers” by William A. Jurgens
I only have volume 1 of the three volume series, mostly because that is the beginning of the church after Jesus was resurrected. I think it is a good idea to have the book to read, and incase you ever need to look something up. Another good book is “Four witnesses”.
 
kristanl said:
I have the “Faith of the Early Fathers” by William A. Jurgens
I only have volume 1 of the three volume series, mostly because that is the beginning of the church after Jesus was resurrected. I think it is a good idea to have the book to read, and incase you ever need to look something up. Another good book is “Four witnesses”.
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so there is more then one book or volume being talked about? Or is the book you mention a completely different book, but with the same intent?
 
Its a different book, but I think more people have the one I have. There are three volumes to the book I have.
 
Yes, all those interested in the christian faith should read from the early church fathers. Peter Kreeft, Phd Boston University, was on a search for the truth of the catholic faith, and one his professors caused him to read from the early church fathers, and those reading validated Catholicism and led him to convert. You can get his CD “7 reasons why everyone should be Catholic” and hear his conversion story.
 
kristanl said:
I have the “Faith of the Early Fathers” by William A. Jurgens
I only have volume 1 of the three volume series, mostly because that is the beginning of the church after Jesus was resurrected. I think it is a good idea to have the book to read, and incase you ever need to look something up. Another good book is “Four witnesses”.
Click to expand...
That is the 3 volume series I have. It is a great & very helpful reference for those interested in seeing what early Christianity looked like.
 
Roblox84 said:
I have seen on this forum that people have been mentioning a book called “the church fathers” or something of that nature. Is it something that is good for all religions to read about the first historical church? I have searched on amazon and it brings up this:
The Early Church Fathers - Ante Nicene Fathers Volume 1-Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Kindle Edition). Is this the book people are referring to?
Click to expand...
That’s one volume that includes some writings of two Church Fathers. The complete writings of the Church Fathers are vast, and I’m not even sure they’ve all been translated into English. 🙂

Here’s a list of Church Fathers.
 
Roblox84 said:
I have seen on this forum that people have been mentioning a book called “the church fathers” or something of that nature. Is it something that is good for all religions to read about the first historical church? I have searched on amazon and it brings up this:
The Early Church Fathers - Ante Nicene Fathers Volume 1-Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (Kindle Edition). Is this the book people are referring to?
Click to expand...
That would be the Early Church Fathers, which are the Patristic witness.

It begins with what some scholars call the Apostolic Fathers. We could arguably include the letters of the New Testament in this collection, but the focus is on additional writings beyond the scope of the New Testament. Christians did not stop writing. These are not flights of fancy and legend or pious fiction, but serious Christian works dealing with prayer, worship and beliefs. The Patristic age lasted from Apostolic times to sometime in the eight century (or basically from the Shepherd of Hermas and the Didache up through the time of Saint John of Damascus, a Doctor of the church).

The CCEL link (in the above post #6) is a good ready reference.

There was a large collection in English recently re-released by Hedrickson Publishers that would be good to own, but it is expensive. This was first translated in the 1890’s and is therefore not under copyright protection. I think it is much of what one will find at the CCEL site. It is listed at $1100.00 USD but I didn’t pay even half that much. Check the library.

Many of the Early Church Fathers are (or have been) available as individual titles through Paulist Press (Ancient Christian Writers series), the CUA Press (the Fathers of the Church series), Saint Vlad’s Seminary Press, the Cistercian Press and Michael Glazier books (now defunct, I think), it looks like Michael Glazier is now published by The Liturgical Press (Message of the Fathers series). I highly recommend the first three publishers, but if the prices seem a bit steep, check the used bookstores (one can save a king’s ransom) and the interlibrary loan.

The Philokalia (Love of the Beautiful) in five volumes is an important collection highly valued in the eastern churches.
MrStain said:
That is the 3 volume series I have. It is a great & very helpful reference for those interested in seeing what early Christianity looked like.
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Just a brief comment.

The three Jurgens books, which I also have, are not nearly comprehensive enough. They are just a selected set of extracts and excerpts of which Jurgens did the selecting for his own purposes, so I consider it too narrowly edited.

I realize that it is promoted heavily by Catholic apologists on tour.


The Hedrickson set
 
Hesychios said:
The three Jurgens books, which I also have, are not nearly comprehensive enough. They are just a selected set of extracts and excerpts of which Jurgens did the selecting for his own purposes, so I consider it too narrowly edited.
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While I’ve found Jurgens useful for reference purposes, I do have to agree with this. It’s not exactly the kind of thing one can easily sit down and just read.

Since Hesychios has recommended many good sources for books by the Church Fathers (CUA & St. Vlad’s being two of my favorites!), I’d like to toss in a couple of recommendations for someone who’s just starting out and knows very little about the topic:

published by Penguin (ISBN: 0140444750)Early Christian Writings is a nice little one-volume collection of writings of the Apostolic Fathers.

One of the first books I ever read by a Church Father was . The St. Vlad’s edition (ISBN: 0913836400)On the Incarnation of the Word of God is a very readable translation with a fantastic introduction by C.S. Lewis. Consider this a twofer. Everyone should have it. (Other “Popular Patristics” by St. Vlad’s are great too-- don’t miss St. John of Damascus’ Three Treatises on the Divine Images!)

For Catholics, (ISBN: 159276245X)The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers is a simple one-volume introduction to these great writers with some good contextualized excerpts. If you like that, you may also find The Way of the Fathers: Praying With the Early Christians by the same author encouraging. (I say “for Catholics” because some Orthodox are not going to agree with all the interpretations.)
 
Anyone who honestly reads the writings of the Early Church Fathers sees that the Church that is closest to the early Church & the only Church with an unbroken line of 2000 years of Apostolic Succession is the Catholic Church.

I have read & heard many conversion stories of Protestants, especially Pastors & Ministers, who were well educated & even some Scripture Scholars, yet once they saw the writings of the ECF’s they saw the Sacraments, especially the importance of the Eucharist, the Body, Blood Soul & Divinity of Jesus.

They saw in the Early Church Apostolic succession & the Primacy of the bishop of Rome, who was called up in the earliest days to resolve disagreements, even while St. John the Apostle was still alive & geographically much closer to many of the Churches than the Bishop of Rome.

They saw no traces in the Early Church of the false beliefs of Sola Scriptura & Once Saved Always Saved, both fairly recent developments.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, Ora Pro Nobis Peccatoribus!

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