Who are your top Church Fathers

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I am constantly digging into the Early Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church. I have created commentaries and catena’s for the last few years using their quotes, and I am now providing the Daily Mass Readings with commentary from them. Here is a list of my favorites, those who I find myself relying on.

1) St. Augustine- always been my favorite. The most original thinker and theologian!

2) St. Thomas Aquinas- The best I have ever seen for being able to glean from so many others (theologians and philosophers) in order to shed light on a doctrine.

3) St. Bede the Venerable- he is extremely reliable and has written commentary on almost the whole Bible. I use his works a lot!

4) St. John Chrysostom- another very reliable source that I use a lot.

5) St. Jerome- a great commentator who can provide so much due to his gift of multi-lingual.

6) The Blessed Theophylact- I love his works!

7) Tertullian- the man was brilliant! What a shame be went into heresy.:mad:

8) Ambrosiaster- his commentaries on Paul’s letters are dynamic! He would be in my top 3 if more of his works existed.

9) Oecumenius- his commentary on Revelation and the Catholic epistles are very very good! He is the best kept secret in Patristic writings.
  1. St. John Cassian- I don’t get to use his stuff as much as I wish, but when I do he provides marvelous insights!
Origen is great, but I don’t use his stuff that much. I usually find quotes from others
 
In my Bible study (currently John’s Gospel) I’m using Augustine, Chrysostam, and Aquinas. Those three are the most comprehensive ancient studies of John that I’ve been able to find online.

I personally find Chrysostam and Aquinas easier to follow than Augustine, but I refer to all three.
 
Strategery

On my site I have the Ancient Christian Commentary available, and both volumes of the Gospel of John, you may find it helpful. litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/page/Bible+Commentaries-Fathers+and+Doctors As long as your computer does not run too slow then it is OK to use.

Unfortunately some of those Church Fathers editions are poorly put together. Especially the ones edited by Phillip Schaff. They were done many years ago and some of them are hard to use. There is no reason why a Bible commentary of all things are not layed out to where you can easily spot whatver chapter and verse that you want to find. It appears that someone from the New Advent site has been working on highlighting some things to make it a little easier. The Catholic University of America Publications does a very fine job, I have their collection as well, but unforunately their translations of the the Church Fathers are not online and free like Schaff’s.
 
I think that the CCEL version of Schaff’s work are easier to use than the ones at New Advent. They do provide an index of scriptures refered to and a chapter or section listing of the varrious works.

ccel.org/
 
Copland3, do you find St. Bede’s works in print, or just on line? I’ve not managed to find more than 4 or 5 books of his Bible commentaries in paperback. :confused:
 
  1. Augustine. Sometimes I love him, sometimes I hate him, but he’s always part of the picture.
  2. Athanasius. On the Incarnation is the single best summary of what Christianity is all about.
  3. Gregory of Nyssa. Like Origen but more profound and more orthodox.
  4. Irenaeus. The theologian who explains what it means to be human.
  5. Origen. Wacky as all get-out and drives you up the wall sometimes, but what would we do without him?
And since you include Aquinas, I’ll add some medievals:
  1. St. Bernard of Clairvaux
  2. Aquinas
  3. Bonaventure
  4. Julian of Norwich
  5. Dante and William Langland, since I can’t choose between them (not doctors of the Church, but great Christian writers)
Edwin
 
Copland3, do you find St. Bede’s works in print, or just on line? I’ve not managed to find more than 4 or 5 books of his Bible commentaries in paperback.
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Unforutnately not much of Bede’s is free online. But I am working on a collection of his. His commentary on Revelation is online, and you can find his quotes in St. Thomas Aquinas’ catena on the Gospels, but the rest of his stuff you have to buy. Plus the Ancient Christian Commentary uses many of his quotes, and I provide access to it on my site. I’ll check later to see what all I can find at online bookstores.
 
I think that the CCEL version of Schaff’s work are easier to use than the ones at New Advent. They do provide an index of scriptures refered to and a chapter or section listing of the varrious works.
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ccel.org/
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Very true, and I use that site all the time when preparing my Scripture Readings. But the Bible commentaries and homilies of that series is not user friendly. If I had the time I would start with St. Augustine’s commentary on 1 John and make it user friendly, the way a commentary should be, and then work on St. John Chrysostom’s homilies and do the same. I did work on St. Augustine’s explanation on Revelation 20 that is his City of God and made it user friendly, you can find it here, litteralchristianlibrary.wetpaint.com/page/1000+year+reign%3A+Church+Fathers

Maybe some where down the road I can do that!
 
Strategery
Thanks, I appreciate it. We’re at the beginning of John 3 tomorrow morning, I’ll check this out tonight as I get ready.
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The link that I am providing will put you right on the page that begins with Chapter 3 of the Ancient Christian Commentary (ACC). Hope this helps.

books.google.com/books?id=519JH-wjqnMC&pg=PT1&dq=ancient+christian+commentary+gospel+john&sig=AOkH-wOtV2MZzp7U7-wBgYo5EMA#PPA107,M1

I use the ACC all the time in the preparing of the Daily Mass Readings. I must say that it is a wonderful resource, but when it comes to the Gospels the ACC does not meet the level of the Catena of St. Thomas Aquinas. That is my opinion. Some of the volumes of the ACC provide commentary from ancient writers that you will not find anywhere else because they have not been translated into English, but when it comes to the Gospels the ACC I feel missed an opportunity to really hit one out of the park.
 
COPLAND_3 said:
Strategery
You’re very welcome, my pleasure!
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If we are limited to Church Fathers, & including the Apostolic Fathers but not including post-Patristic authors:​

  • Justin Martyr
  • Irenaeus of Lyons
  • Minucius Felix (anyone who is that fond of Cicero can’t be all bad)
  • Origen, definitely (despite his habit of allegorising everything in sight; a failing in which he was not alone)
  • Arnobius
  • Lactantius
  • Cyril of Jerusalem
  • Egeria (who deserves to be far better known than she is)
    Do NT Apocrypha count ?
 
Do NT Apocrypha count ?
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Counts to me. I love much of the apocrypha. I fell in love the Acts of Barnabas when I read it. I truly believe that St. Mark wrote it.
 
Here some others that I love.

Theodoret- He wrote a lot of commentary on the Bible. He is a steady performer.

St, John of Damascus- I only wish I had more of his writings. I do have his commentary on Galatians on my site along with his Orthodox Faith. Great stuff!

St. Ambrose- I love his works, his commentaries are great but sometimes he gets too long winded, much like Augustine.

St. Greogory the Great and St. Greogry of Nazianzen
 
  1. Origen. Wacky as all get-out and drives you up the wall sometimes, but what would we do without him?
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Origen has contributed sooooo much to our Faith, like Tertullian he has his problems. I always thought that it would have been awesome if these heavy weights would have debated with one another.

It was once said that ‘when Origen wrote good, nobody wrote better, but when he wrote bad nobody wrote worse.’ How true that is.

I have used Origen’s Hexapla many times in my Septuagint studies.
 
COPLAND_3 said:
Counts to me. I love much of the apocrypha. I fell in love the Acts of Barnabas when I read it. I truly believe that St. Mark wrote it.
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Excellent 🙂​

In that case, I’d like to add:
  • The Gospel of Peter
  • The Apocalypse of Peter
  • The Apocalypse of Paul
  • The Questions of Bartholomew
  • The Ascension of Isaiah
  • & the martyrdom-sections in the Acts of Andrew, &, of Peter
    & what little I have so far read of the Clementine Recognitions 🙂
 
Gottle of Geer

What you have listed is excellent. I read the Clementine Recognitions and I feel that there is a great deal of authenticity, as with much of the apocrypha. The real critics are mostly modern scholars which I don’t usually take their opinions as authoritative. The ancients relied upon some of the apocraypha as uninspired but historical. In my personal opinion a lot of the apocrypha was honest eye witnesses and followers of the Apostles who either saw much of what happened or received orally the accounts.
 
Athanasius #1
Ambrose 2
Origen 3 … had many great ideas on allegory in bible.

Example: The Good Samaritan Parable. Actually others had the idea before him, but he fully developed the double meaning.
 
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