/christian/ - Christian Discussion and Fellowship

Start with the Bible.

>>598981

St. Ignatius of Antioch is a must

>>598988

Thanks!

Is there a book of his I should read first?

Start with the Greeks :^)

http://www.ccel.org/fathers.html

Just ignore the notes.

>>598981

>I'd like to start reading the works of the church fathers but I don't know where to begin.

Chronological order best order

>Are there more important books that I should read first?

Bible. Or if you are in mood of staying Orthodox some commentaries about them though I not guarantee this.

>Are there some books I should read in a certain order as not to get confused?

If someone is praised as someone successor then read him after one that he succeeded. For example, read Polycarp before Irenaeus and Ambrose before Augustine.

>>598989

All of his letters in chronological order

>>598991

Ackchyually start with Hebrews. St. Barnabas and Didache. Then Greeks, Polycarp and Ignatius.

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/ has a good compilation of writings! Best of luck!

Is there a good physical compilation of the Church Fathers? Something like "The Essential Church Fathers."

>>599617

I remember seeing a complete Church Fathers set, but it was like 800USD

>>598983

this

>>598981

I would personally suggest Luke, then Acts. Then read the rest of the Gospels in order, then read the letters in order. Then read it all again. Then the old testament in order.

>>598983

Fpbp

Reminder that the disciples said there were false teachers in the church while they were still alive.

>>599617

Not really, since there were many, many church fathers and some of the works they wrote are too long to be contained in a volume with other works, like St. Augustine's "City of God". A good starting point is "The Apostolic Fathers in English" which contains the writings of the first generation of Christians after the Apostles.

>>599633

Yeah, in the 1800s Philip Schaff put together a huge compilation of almost all the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Christian writings(the most glaring omission being the writings of Cyril of Alexandria.) It's going to cost hundreds of dollars if you want the physical books, but you can buy them all digitally for less than 15$ altogether. Or, since they're all old enough to be public domain, you download them all for free here http://www.ccel.org/node/70

When do you get to the Syriac Fathers?

>>598981

The Didache is a good start, it's a fairly short book written by the 12 Apostles themselves. Pastor Rick Wiles gives a good introduction to this subject.

>>598981

http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/

>>601196

Dumb question, but I see some [GNOSTIC] tags on those, does that mean I should steer clear of those? Wasn't sure if the Roman Catholic Church had a different meaning for that tag.

On the Incarnation - Athanasius the Great

On the Holy Spirit - Basil the Great

On the Unity of Christ - Cyril of Alexandria

On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ - Maximus the Confessor

On the Divine Images - John of Damascus

^^^

These works correspond to the controversies of the Seven Ecumenical Councils starting with Athanasius the Great

>>598981

I think st. Justin the Martyr's writings are the oldest we have outside the Bible. It's a good overview of what the early Christians believed. It's not theology really, it's about practical belief.

>>598995

The writings of Barnabas in the NT? Or are there other sources?

>>611640

Barnabas is silent in Scriptures. But there is letter of his supposed authorship that deals with old and new covenant and have somewhat good interpretation of the Law

>>611935

Thanks, I guess in a sense it's the cancer we all have to fight against even to this day.

>>601148

Rick Wiles' pronounciation of Didache ("Dee-ay-da-kay"..) is surely off the mark?

"Dida-shey"..anyone?

Hi,

I have seen that "Against Heresies" of Saint Irenaeus is present on some "Church Fathers" reading list. Is it a good read and helpful in general ? I ask this because I read that It was focused on proving gnostics wrong so I wonder how relevant could it be a for christian of our day.

>>613266

You want something against heresies today? The most prevalent one is protestantism, so I'd recommend a book called the Catholic controversy by st. Francis de Sales, you can get it for free on archive.org. He was the bishop of Geneva when Calvin was rampaging and managed to convert tens of thousands of people back to the faith.

https://archive.org/details/catholiccontrove00sain

As for st. Irenaeus, I'm not sure how relevant that is today. If you want to see what the earliest Christians believed, read st. Justin the martyr.

>>613287

Oh thanks. Fun fact, the original title in french is "Open letters to protestants". Also, it's Saint François de Sales.

hon hon hon :^)

>>613430

>"Open letters to protestants"

Oh, didn't know that. I only know he wrote extensively because he wasn't allowed to speak by Calvinists so he walked around at night and pushed his leaflets under people's doors.

>>613266

Against Heresies is 10/10, and shows how early a lot of the more profound Christian theology is. It also destroys Calvinism, incidentally.

>>613287

Why do you like Justin Martyr over Irenaeus? If anything, the Dialogue with Trypho and Against Heresies complete one another (one being against Judaism and the other being against Gnosticism, the two big early heresies).

>>613437

Because st. Justing talks more about the actual practice of early Christians. For example, in his Fisrst Apology he wrote:

>And this food is called among us Εὐχαριστία [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.

>For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.

Also, his writings are the first real apologetics of Christianity.

>>612830

Dee-da-ke

>>613266

Against the Heresies is manual to BTFOing Gnostics of all sorts. Beautiful really, I love when it shows up in Liturgy of Hours. But unless you deal with new-age faggotry then it might be a little to specific.