BOOK BITE
THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH: An Introduction to the First Christian Teachers, by Mike Aquilina. Our Sunday Visitor Publishing,1999. Pp.239 (BR67.A98).
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THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH was written by a Roman Catholic for Roman Catholics. But, because these early church leaders nourished the roots of later Protestantism, and are much a part of Anglican history, this is a good book for all of us. You may want to read this work before you get deeply into a major new acquisition, the Ancient Church Commentary on the Scriptures, a gift of a generous parishioner, and a major work still coming off the press. This set, about which you will hear more later, is a commentary by the early Church Fathers on the Bible. We now have eighteen of twenty-eight volumes.
Aquilina divides the early leaders between Greek Fathers and Latin Fathers. He addresses his subject by historical periods: 1) The Apostolic Fathers, e.g. St. Clement of Rome and St. Polycarp of Smyrna; 2) The Ante-Nicene Fathers, e.g. Justin Martyr and Tertullian; 3) the Nicene Era, including Eusebius and Basil the Great; and 4) the Post-Nicene Era, Jerome, Augustine, Chrysostom et. al.
These ancient leaders are viewed through the lens of theology, disagreement, personality and sacrifice for the Church. The last words of Polycarp, as he was burned at the stake, are gripping at a time St. Philip’s is seeking sacrificial pledges from its members. The book addresses what it is to give one’s all for Christ, noting that many died as martyrs.
…The Library Committee