'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.

 

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.

 

A GAME CHANGER IN CHRISTIANITY - A LOOK AT IRENAEUS OF LYONS

 

In case you've lost track in counting, this is part four of a beginning of the year series looking at the church fathers, using Getting to Know the Church Fathers: an Evangelical Introduction by Bryan Litfin as a guide. 

One thing we often forget is that we didn't always have hundreds of Bible translations or a clear cut guide on what Christians believed. With the combination of persecution from the outside and false teaching on the inside, we can see the need for a catholic (small 'c', representing the universal church), as well as people defending against false teaching.

A primary form of false teaching was Gnosticism. In college, I wrote a 30 page term paper looking at six early church movements: Ebionites, Gnostics, Marcionites, Montanists, Novatianists, and Donatists. The Gnostics took up half the paper.

Gnosticism has always been a threat to Christianity. The books of Colossians and 1 John in particular dealt with early Gnosticism. Additionally, the Gnostic emphasis on knowledge shows up in two different ways: 

1. False sects that rehash old Gnostic theology (not to mention groups that call themselves Gnostic), and 
2. Individuals and groups that are orthodox theologically but have the same Spiritual elitism that was in Gnosticism.

What are some beliefs of Gnostics? They divide people into three groups - 1) the pagans who lack knowledge; 2) those with some knowledge who will save themselves by doing good; and 3) the Gnostics, who have a complete understanding and thus are free to do whatever they want. You may remember my mentioning the belief of Docetism (denying the humanity of Jesus Christ) in an earlier blog - Gnostices were Docetists. They believed that matter is evil and the spiritual is the true reality. Unlike historical Christianity, the God of Gnosticism is not the Creator of the world; the earth was made by a false god. 

If you compare Gnostic teachings with evangelical beliefs, you'll see it wasn't merely a competing form of Christianity, as we consider denominations to be. Rather, it is a different religion with differing views on creation, sin, the reason for Jesus to come (to be a wise teacher as opposed to the once-for-all sacrifice for sin). They also had their own writings contained in the Nag Hamadi library, the best known being the Gospel of Thomas. This book differs from the four canonical Gospels - the Gospel of Thomas was not a telling of the life of Christ but a collection of 114 sayings attributed to him, ending with one where Peter questioned Jesus allowing Mary Magdalene to be with them since she was a woman, and Jesus replied that He was making her male. (And you think today's Christianity is misogynist?)

This was the time of Irenaeus (pronounced Eer-eh-nay-us; I still struggle to pronounce his name correctly). He was born in the Middle East and then became bishop in what is now called Lyons. When he was young, he sat under Polycarp. Scholars consider him to have good relationship with the Bishop in Rome, and encouraged the Bishop not to ex-communicate the Asia Minor church over a disagreement on the dating of Easter, pointing out that while a previous Bishop of Rome and Polycarp had disagreements, the Bishop invited Polycarp to officiate the eucharist. Other than that, we don't know of the details of his life, including whether he died a martyr or not.

We best know Irenaeus not from historians but a pair of his writings. The better know is known under the title Against Heresies, and until the mid-20th century description of the Nag Hamadi Library it was the primary source on Gnosticism. In Another Gospel? A Lifelong Christian Seeks Truth in Response to Progressive Christianity, Alisa Childers mentioned reading Against Heresies as a step of strengthening her faith after it was challenged.

One modern day fable is that our current Bible won out over the Gnostic views due to the politics of the day. But Irenaeus' defense against Gnosticism was 0% politics and 100% doctrinal.

 Irenaeus felt there were three defenses against error:  the Church, the Scriptures (Irenaeus was the first two see a second, Christian, collection of Scripture we now refer to as the New Testament), and the Creeds. He refers to a Rule of Faith, which was a predecessor to the Apostles Creed.

 When it comes to the balance between truth and love, many Christians prioritize one over the other. Irenaeus did a great job of dealing with both truth and love, of promoting unity among the Church while fighting against false teachings.

Do you tend to favor either truth or love above the other virtue? What are you doing to promote unity in your church? Likewise, what are you doing to protect yourself, your family, and other believers from error?