'25 SUMMER READING LIST, #7 - "GETTING TO KNOW THE CHURCH FATHERS" BY BRYAN LITFIN

How many of you get excited by studying church history? Does it seem to be dealing with dry historical figures that don't really fit in with modern life? Here's a book that will help you appreciate the development and the individuals who influenced that development.

If you can read the small, light print on the bar above the author's name, you'll see this is the second edition. I've read both editions. The first one deals with Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Perpetua, Origen, Athanasius, John Chrysostom, Augustine, and Cyril of Alexandria. The second edition adds Ephram the Syrian and St. Patrick of Ireland. 

Each chapter gives a biography of the subject and some description of what was going on at the time. This is followed by five or so questions, reading recommendations, and an excerpt of their writings. The questions make this ideal for a group study - I've used this in that setting twice.

 

BOOK REVIEW OF "25 BOOKS EVERY CHRISTIAN SHOULD READ" SELECTED BY RENOVARE AND MY SUMMER READING LIST OF 25 BOOKS I THINK SHOULD BE READ.

This book caught my attention, so I looked to see which 25 books they recommended. Before I opened to the contents, though, I noticed the four contributors they mentioned (there were a total of 12), and the only one I was familiar with was one I'm not a fan of. 

Renovare is the ministry that put this out, which is known for focusing on Spiritual foundations. The group is ecumenical, so there are approaches I agree with and those I don't. 

That being said, they had an interesting selection of books, from church fathers Athanasius and Augustine to Dietrich Bonhoeffer and C.S. Lewis. They describe each book and include an excerpt. 

For people who want a diverse list of Christian authorship from the past 1700 years, I would recommend it. While I'm surprised in some of the omissions, such as a lack of Tozer, I think this is a fair representation of Christian classics.

But if I made a list, what would be on it?

Well, I was curious so I created a list of books that I think would benefit all Christians. There are not as many classics on my list, and there are only two that are on both my list and Renovare's. There are books I haven't read which would edge some of these off if I did (e.g. Francis Schaeffer's "The God Who Is There" and Robby Gallaty's discipleship book "Growing Up"), but I didn't include them. Also, two of my books are by one author.

I'll include the list for summer reading here, and the next five weeks I'll go through my list with more detail on each book. I've listed them in alphabetic order by title.

Ready?

1. "Another Gospel?" by Alisa Childers.

2. "The Benedict Option" by Rod Dreher.

3. "Calling on the Name of the Lord" by J. Gary Millar.

4. "Evidence That Demands a Verdict" by Josh McDowell.

5. "50 People Every Christian Should Know" by Warren Wiersbe.

6. "Four Views on Eternal Security" edited by J. Matthew Pinson.

7. "Getting to Know the Church Fathers" by Bryan Litfin.

8. "The Gospel According to Jesus" by John MacArthur.

9. "In the Shadow of the Cross" by Glenn Penner. 

10. "Killing Calvinism" by Greg Dutcher. 

11. "The Knowledge of the Holy" by A.W. Tozer.

12. "Living the Cross Centered Life" by C.J. Mahaney.

13. "Love Your God With All Your Mind" by J.P. Moreland.

14. "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. 

15. "The Pilgrim's Progress" by John Bunyan.

16. "Pray & Go" by Thom Rainer.

17. "A Primer on Biblical Literacy" by Cory M. Marsh.

18. "The Pursuit of God" by A.W. Tozer.

19. "Sacred Pathways" by Gary Thomas. 

20. "Simplify Your Spiritual Life" by Don Whitney.

21. "Superheroes Can't Save You" by Todd Miles.

22. "Total Truth" by Nancy Pearcey.

23. "Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left" by D. Eric Shansberg.

24. "When Faith is Forbidden" by Todd Nettleton.

25. "You're Not Enough (and That's Okay) by Allie Beth Stuckey.

Well, Monday we'll start on the list.

 

LOOKING BACK AT THE CHURCH FATHERS AND CHURCH HISTORY

 

"Church Fathers' Fellowship", Jeffrey C. Reynolds. Explanation below.

I hope you enjoyed the last two weeks looking at various church fathers. Maybe you've learned more about the first 500 years of church history than you previously known. Maybe you've been challenged and/or encouraged through this series. If so, please let me know.

We have a problem today with Biblical illiteracy. Add to that the fact that Scripture is inspired by the Holy Spirit and is in its entirety truth(2 Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; Psalm 119:160; 2 Peter 1:21), and church history is not, and we can see why church history is overlooked. But should it be?

Paul urged the Corinthians to follow him as he followed Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). Likewise, we should note how other believers follow Christ and imitate their obedience and faith (Philippians 3:17; Hebrews 6:11-12; 13:7). In this case, we can learn from the Church Fathers, from the Reformers, from godly pastors/evangelists/apologists/authors of the past and present, and even from pioneers of Christian music (which I would include Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley in that category).

In the book Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction, Bryan Litfin ended each chapter with some provocative questions concerning the church father covered. In the last chapter, the final two questions were more summary questions. 

He asks which of the twelve people he dealt with were your favorites and least favorites, and if there were any whom you felt connection to. My favorites were Tertullian, Athanasius, and John Chrysostom. The first two were in my list of heroes of the faith before I read this book; Chrysostom was not. Least favorite is easy, and if you've been faithful reading this series and have a memory of what you've read in the past three days, you'd know it's Cyril of Alexandria.

Do I relate to any? This took some thought, and I realized there were two. One was Irenaeus of Lyons, who worked to bring peace between the Bishop of Rome and some in the Middle East who disagreed with him on the dating of Easter, as well as standing against the false teaching of the Gnostics. The other was Ephrem the Syrian, between his use of poetry to teach truth and his encouragement of getting "the sisters" to sing by forming women's choirs. Some of you may know I used to be a songwriter, and a few might know that I've always liked hearing female vocalists. 

Litfin's last question of the readers is if their view of "church fathers" changed. At the beginning of the book, he mentioned some confused the catholic fathers with Roman Catholicism - whether you use a capital 'C' makes the difference.  Likewise, he stated some felt the Church fell into apostasy at some point (usually either with Constantine's rise to power or with Leo the Great raising the role of the Pope). My treatment is more abbreviated than Litfin's but it would be interesting if my series has affected your opinion of the church fathers in particular and church history in general.

So let me close to the few, the proud, those who read my blog daily for the last two weeks: Who are your favorites of the twelve Litfin (and I) have dealt with? Whose your least favorites? And do you connect with any of them? 

Explanation of Picture:

"Church Fathers' Fellowship".

In the center, seated, are Origen and John Chrysostom, debating over hermeneutics (Biblical interpretation, with Origen representing Alexandrian allegorism and Chrysostom representing Antiochene interpretation, more literal.

 

On the far left, you have Ignatius of Antioch with the lion he met at the Collesium; they're better friends now in glory. Seated is Ephrem the Syrian, trying to teach Perpetua a hymn he wrote - Ephrem encouraged women's choirs. Perpetua is with a heifer who she encountered at her martyrdom.

 

Behind Origen and Chrysostom are observing, left to right, Irenaeus of Lyons, Athanasius, Augustine, and Cyril of Alexandria. I'd love to hear their theological discussion.

 

On the far right, St. Patrick discussing the shamrock as an object lesson to philosopher/early apologist Justin Martyr (seated) and Tertullian (standing).

 

Artist's impression of the twelve church fathers in "Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction," (2nd edition) by Bryan Litfin.

 

ALONE AGAINST THE WORLD? - A LOOK AT ATHANASIUS OF ALEXANDRIA

 When I started reading Getting To Know The Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction by Bryan Litfin, I already had a pair of favorite Church Fathers. In both cases, Litfin confirmed my positive impression. One was Tertullian, who we looked at three days ago. The other is Athanasius.

Before I look at my hero, though, let me paint the picture. The second edition of this book has 12 chapters, and we've now entered the second half. However, the game is completely changed. At least four of the six were ushered into eternity by a cruel pagan Roman government; we don't know about the other two, but even if they weren't martyrs, their lives were touched by persecution. 

But then, a game-changer took place. The Emperor who was set out to exterminate Christianity was replaced by a successor who at least gave lip service to being a Christian. Clergy men who physically bore the marks of the Great Persecution of Diocletian (e.g. missing eyes, lack of use of hands) were a few years later dining as honored guests of Constantine.

Was Constantine a hero, a villain, or merely an important figure in Church History? Good question, but do you see his name mentioned in the title of this blog? Do you see an artist's representation of him above? No? That's because the focus is on Athansius.

As said, the above artwork is an artist's impression, as it is with all the other church fathers. I gave up trying to find photos or videos of them. In the case of Athanasius, the artist seemed to be unaware of his nickname, "The Black Dwarf." Would Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman be a good actor to play him? Maybe, but they might be too tall. 

Of course, heroes stand out more when you have a villain, and in this case it was a gentleman named Arius. The area of disagreement? Whether Jesus was God Incarnate or a lesser, created being. Minor topic? Not to Athanasius. Rather, the "Black Dwarf" considered Christ's deity to be crucial in our salvation. 

Constantine called a council at Nicea to resolve this issue, which was when he dined with the bishops as I mentioned above. The overwhelming number of bishops agreed with the Nicean Creed, ex-communicating and condemning Arius. (Some have suggested one of the bishops - St. Nicholas, no less - punched Arius in the nose; Litfin considers this to be a legend that probably didn't happen.) And thus, Arianism was defeated.

Guess again. One thing I've noticed about false teaching is that when proven to be in error, the false teachers regroup and try again to get acceptance of their views. This happened here. Constantine's idea of the Council was to come to a conclusion, have the two sides shake hands, and get along. Thus, the Arians managed to get Constantine to be more conciliatory, and when Athanasius would not re-instate Arius, the Emperor exiled him. In fact, Athanasius was exiled a total of five times by three different Caesars. In fact, while Constantine was apparently neutral, his successor Constantius was pro-Arian, and the heresy grew (even though Arius himself passed on due to an explosive intestinal disorder).

However, Athanasius was no more likely to cave in than the Arians. He fought long and hard for Trinitariansm, even if he seemed to be fightin alone. Almost 1500 years later, John Wesley urged William Wiberforce to keep his fight against slavery going, as Athanasius contrta mundum (Athanasius against the world). 

He wasn't alone. Athanasius had help from a trio of church fathers known as the Three Capodocians (Gregory of Naziananzus, Basil of Caesarea, and Gregory of Nyssa). Then, pro-Nicene Theodosius became Caesar and convened the Great Council of Constantinople which affirmed Trinitarianism as orthodoxy (though Athanasius had passed on eight years before then).

Litfin has interesting ways of comparing the church fathers with other people. He likened Tertullian to a stubborn cowboy. In the case of Athanasius, Litfin used the story of Hans Brinker keeping his finger in the dike to illustrate how the "Black Dwarf" stemmed the flood of Arianism.

Do you have the same zeal to stand up against false teaching, even if it's you against the world?