The Fathers of the Church, 3rd Edition

The Fathers of the Church is excellent. What first struck me, as I was flipping through the book before I started reading it from the beginning, was Saint Justin's account of the celebration of the Eucharist. If I hadn't known better, I would have thought it was someone's description of a Catholic mass, now, in 2014. Justin Martyr wrote the description in 155 a.d.! It's 1,859 years old, but what the first Christians were doing in 155 a.d. is the same mass we have now! That floored me and got me hooked, so I started reading the book from the beginning. The introduction is great-- it defines the four criteria to be a Church Father and the importance of the Fathers learning from those who hung out with the Apostles who hung out with Jesus. It tells the reader about the different eras the Church Fathers lived and wrote in,what the different heresies were that they had to deal with, and how the people learned this from the Fathers' teachings before the world was literate and the written word was available to all. The selections of readings from the Fathers are highly readable and are explained in light of what was going on in the Church at that particular time. The descriptions of the individual Fathers are very enlightening. For example, I never knew that Jerome was so snarky! These are real people who had human strengths and faults, just like me. The Fathers passed on the faith that we are blessed with today. It fills that gap of "how did we get from Jesus and the Apostles to modern day Christianity?" Mike Aquilina writes at a level that is easily understandable, but intelligent and exciting at the same time. My poor book now has TONS of underlining and writing in the margins. This is my new favorite book. Get it. Read it.

All Catholics should read this book to learn about the early Church Fathers of the first centuries. All Protestants should read it to understand where Catholic tradition originates. E.g.: Early Christians were accused of cannibalism for celebrating the Eucharistic. But they also fought hard to prevent abortion and infanticide (very common even during Roman era). If cannibalism required the killing of someone, then why are they fighting against the killing of unborn or newly born babies? They were tirelessly disproving all the baseless accusations against them. Mike Aquilina has selected some of the most well-known early Church Fathers from the Nicene, Ante-Nicene, and Post-Nicene periods and summarized their writings in an easy-to-read, introductory format. This allows readers to avoid combing through volumes upon volumes of the Fathers’ works just to learn about their lives and teachings. You’ll find that the moral issues rampant during the Roman Empire were very similar to those we face today. The early Church Fathers confronted problems such as sexual immorality, abortion, and drunkenness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They continually defended the truth of Christ—even at the risk of martyrdom for “atheism,” since under Roman rule, refusing to believe in the Greek gods made one an atheist. The early Christians fought tirelessly and gave their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ, laying the foundation upon which Western civilization was built. They lived according to the Gospels, and that tradition endured for centuries, leading up to the Reformation era. I felt like the early Church tradition were pretty much a mystery after that…which is unfortunate because Western Civilization were literally built from it. A great read—very informative and inspiring. Must buy for Christians or Non-Christians!!! And yes, they debated what “works” meant in the early days way before the Reformation made it a topic!

Many history books slant the truth and become more of the writers opinions. Not this book, it's like hearing the history directly from the mouths of the earliest Christians. Portal back in time that is just as relevant because real truth is eternal. This book helped me become a better Catholic.

A great resource of anyone looking for the Fathers of the Church. Also, he lists other books for further research. Recommend highly!

Enjoying reading this book.

This is a worthwhile description of the Church Fathers -- who they were and why we still learn about them. Easy to read. Kind of a handbook rather than a critical theological analysis. Nicely fills in some gaps in my understanding of Christian history.

What did the Church actually believed and taught in the beginning of the church.

I purchased this book as a supplement for an Adult Bible Study at my parish and am learning a lot about the the ear!y Church Fathers. This wou!d be a tremendous resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the Catholic faith.

Very good book.

Received, a must have book.

This is a tremendous book! A humbling experience, the book really makes you come to appreciate the earliest Christian bishops, popes, monks and teachers, of which I would have been otherwise totally ignorant of. They were such important and good people, as many of them were martyrs, they bore so much suffering and torture for the Christain faith. In fact they are so essential to Christianity, that with out their devotion and martyrdom, the faith would probably not be here in the form we have it today. I also admire how the fathers kept a tight lid on heresy and mysticism, and preserved the orthodox doctrine of Christianity that we have today, I have read a lot a about mysticism and find it inferior to orthodox doctrine. The book also gives you a deep appreciation of Catholicism. I would say we are in a state of ignorance if we have not read about the fathers of the church.

A great reference book to know the history of church from the time Jesus left it with the disciplines for the next 800 years. Give you a grip of why we do what we do now.

Very enlightening and educational