Writing of the church fathers

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DiscerningDave

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Does anyone have a suggestion for a book that has the writing of the church fathers? I understand there are numerous books written by each…but I am looking for something that maybe has the writings of numerous fathers and are short essays on differing topics of the church.

Thanks in advance.
 
There are two books I would recommend:

*The Fathers of the Church: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers *by Mike Aquilina (published by Our Sunday Visitor)

*Four Witnesses: The Early Church in Her Own Words *by Rod Bennett (published by Ignatius)

Aquilina’s book is a good overview, touching on thirty-one Church Fathers (and three “Mothers”).

In an attempt to show what the early Church was like, Bennett focuses in more detail on the writings of four Church Fathers: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, and Irenaeus of Lyons.
 
Well, I suppose the place to start is the Apostolic Fathers. I have the two volume set of the Loeb version, which has them. The only reason I have them, though, is that I found them on a library discard. They are good, but I’m sure they’re also expensive.

Catholic Answers has a version of a book called, “Early Christian Writings” which is fairly representative of the Apostolic Fathers. It is also fairly cheap. It omits the Shepherd of Hermas, but otherwise is very complete.

If you want to examine the writings of Justin Martyr as well, then you’ll need to find something different. Since I, personally, have been looking for a complete, unabridged copy of St. Irenaeus’ Against Heresies I purchased the first volume of the Ante-Nicene Fathers series, which contains the Apostolic Fathers, Justin Martyr and Irenaeus of Lyons. The only downside to this is that it has some rather unecumenical commentary in it as regards the Fathers, because it was written by Protestants at the turn of the 19th century. If you have no problem ignoring these comments which try to make the Fathers into Protestants, then it is good quality-- but there are no good essays or explanations of the Fathers in here.

Otherwise, for Justin Martyr, I’d probably look into the Ancient Christian Writers Series. This one has his first and second apologies. Those are his two most important works. After that… maybe the Dialogue with Trypho the Jew, but that’s much longer.

Personally, if I were you, I’d want to get definitely the Early Christian Writers book, and maybe the Justin Martyr one as well. If you want extra commentary on top of what the books that contain the primary sources have, then I’m sure PhilotheaZ
s recommendations are good.

God bless, and feel free to ask me whatever you’d like. I personally just started reading the Fathers myself, and I’m up to Justin’s second apology right now. I hope to finish that soon and get on to Irenaeus.

-Rob
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I stopped at the library today and checked out ***Documents in Early Christian Thought ***by Cambridge University Press.

It has writings that touch on numerous different topics of the Church. It seems a good start, I hope.

Peace
 
Hendricksen Publishers has a great series that was mentioned called the Ante Nicene Fathers. It is a great set. The full set has three parts: Ante Nicene Fathers, Nicene Fathers, and the Post Nicene Fathers. One can get them at a great price at Christianbook.com. Also there is a fine Catholic section on that website. Anyhow, yes, Justin Martyr, Ignatius of Antioch, and Irenaeus are represented completely in that first volume of that series. God bless you in your studies in the early Church.

Williamdwriter
 
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