Introduction
“He who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most
High will seek out the wisdom of the ancients…He will
preserve the discourse of notable men” (Sir. 39, 1-2).
This course is designed to study the earliest history of the Church with a
particular view to discovering that it was Catholic from its very beginnings.
In studying early Church history it is best to examine the Fathers of the
Church and their writings. The study of the Fathers is called Patrology.
What is a Father of the Church? There are four determining tests:
(i) Orthodoxy; (ii) Sanctity; (iii) Antiquity; (iv) Church approval.
Orthodoxy does not mean freedom from all error. In the writings of even
the greatest Church Fathers one will find some error, however, with all true
Church Fathers one always finds a devotion to the Catholic Church and
orthodox teaching;
Sanctity implies that the particular Father was noted for his outstanding
holiness according to Catholic morality in word and in deed;
Antiquity means that the Father lived and died between the years 100 AD
and 749 AD. The Patristic Age ended in the West in the year 636 AD with
the death of St. Isidore, of Seville and in the East in the year 749 AD with
the death of St. John Damascene;
Church approval means that the Church has examined the writings of the
Father in question and acknowledges their Catholic worth from all points of
view – theological, philosophical, historical, etc. The Church has an official
list of 87 Fathers – 49 Greek and 38 Latin (see appendix A).
There is an enormous worth in studying the early Church Fathers for the
purposes of Catholic Apologetics. To best understand the teachings of
Christ and the Apostles it is impossible to ignore the Fathers, particularly
the Apostolic Fathers
as many of these actually knew and were taught
 |
 |
 |