A better clue
to understanding what the title "Church Father" means is provided by
St. Clement of Alexandria: "Words are the progeny of the soul. Hence
we call those that instructed us fathers" (Stromateis
1.1.2-2.1; cf. Irenaeus, Against Heresies 4.41.2). Since the
principal teacher of any Christian community is its bishop, the
title "Father" was first applied to him. In fact, the bishops who
gather in church councils have been from early times referred to as
"council fathers." But because many of the most important early
Christian teachers were laymen (e.g., St. Justin), deacons (e.g.,
St. Ephrem), and priests (e.g., St. Jerome), it became customary
from the fourth century to reckon these too among "the Fathers." In
the doctrinal disputes that made
the Ecumenical councils
necessary, all parties recognized the inspired Scriptures as the
first court of appeal (see Vincent of Lerins, Commonitory,
2.4-5; 29.76).
But when there was conflict about the truly Catholic
interpretation of the Scriptures, all sought backing for their
position in the writings of "the Fathers." By this they meant
teachers of an earlier era who demonstrated how the apostolic
scriptures were understood and applied by the apostles themselves
and those who followed them. While all early Christian pastors and
catechists "fathered" their particular portion of the flock during
their lifetime, only those that put their teaching in writing could
continue to serve as a guide to the whole Church in every age.
So the term
"Father of the Church" finally came to refer to important Christian
writers after the New Testament era who, because of closeness
to that era, witness to the authentically apostolic way of
interpreting the Scriptures handed on to them by the Catholic
Tradition. These writers played an irreplaceable and unrepeatable
role in transmitting Christian doctrine and bringing it to mature
expression, at least in its most fundamental features. While the
Church’s understanding of revelation will continue to deepen until
the Lord returns, the dogmas of the Trinity and the Incarnation,
which stand at the center of the "Hierarchy of Truths" (UR
11), were defined once and for all during the period of the Fathers
(a.k.a. the patristic era). It is significant that the age of the
Early Church Fathers, commonly regarded as closing with
St. John Damascene
(d. 749), is roughly co-terminus with the period of the first seven
great Ecumenical Councils which defined these two central mysteries
of the faith and drew out their most important implications. No
Catholic teacher after this time, no matter how stellar, is reckoned
among the Church Fathers.
Geographical
and Cultural Diversity:
The first language of the universal Church was Greek, the language
of the New Testament. All of the Early Church Fathers, from all
parts of the Christian world, continued to write in Greek until
about 200 when Tertullian, a North African theologian, wrote a
treatise in Latin. From then on, Latin gradually became the language
of the Western Fathers of the Church. In the Eastern half of the
Mediterranean world, many continued to write in Greek, especially
those in the urban areas controlled by the Byzantine Empire. In
rural localities and territory outside the empire, some Christian
authors (e.g., St. Ephrem) began to write in local vernaculars such
as Syriac-Aramaic, a dialect of the language spoken by Christ. This
wonderful diversity of culture and location makes it that much
clearer that, whenever the Fathers teach the same doctrine or
describe the same liturgical practice, they are witnessing to
something that came not from them, but to them–the apostolic
Tradition.
Periodization.
The first Ecumenical council,
held in the city of Nicaea, (325) marked a momentous event for the
Church. For this reason, the writers before these interrelated
events are known as the Ante-Nicene Fathers ("ante" meaning
before). They in turn are commonly divided into two groups. The
Apostolic Fathers are those who wrote during the generation or
two after the close of the New Testament era (from about 95-150AD).
They are so-called because they are thought to have had living
contact with the apostles and so are particularly precious witnesses
to primitive apostolic Christianity. The few writings from this
period that have survived are pastoral and practical rather than
speculative. They include the anonymous "Teaching of the
Twelve Apostles," otherwise known as the Didache, which is
the earliest work describing Christian sacramental life. They also
include letters from
St. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch,
St. Polycarp, who reportedly sat at the feet of the apostle John,
and St. Clement, the bishop of Rome, who wrote to the Church in
Corinth around 95 AD. It is fascinating that Clement’s letter,
probably written around the same time as John’s Gospel, was regarded
as so authoritative in the early church that it was copied and
passed to churches all over the known world and considered by many
as part of the New Testament scriptures.
Unlike the apostolic
fathers who were generally simple, uncultivated men, the Ante-Nicene
Fathers from 150-325AD included the first great Christian
intellectuals who sought a synthesis between biblical truth and the
best of classical wisdom. Employing the rigorous intellectual tools
of Greek philosophy in their reflection on the mysteries of the
faith, these writers contributed to the clarification and
development of Catholic doctrine as well as to its faithful
transmission. They are generally known as the Apologists and
Anti-heretical Writers since virtually all of them wrote either
treatises combating various Christian heresies or written defenses
of Christianity addressed to the Roman government known as
"apologies." Among them we find such luminaries as St. Justin, the
pagan philosopher turned Christian apologist, St. Irenaeus, the
implacable foe of Gnosticism, Origen, the greatest Scripture scholar
of the Ante-Nicene period, and Tertullian, the first writer to use
the term "Trinity."
The Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers are likewise divided into two groups. The
fourth and fifth centuries is the era of the first four ecumenical
councils which defined the dogmas of the Trinity and Christ’s
divinity and full humanity. Under the influence of the Fathers of
this period, the biblical canon and the Nicene Creed assumed their
final shape and the various liturgical rites of the Catholic Church
(e.g., Roman and Byzantine) took on many of their distinctive
characteristics. For these reasons, scholars often refer to this era
as the Golden Age of Patristic Literature. Notable among the
eastern fathers of this period are Athanasius, tireless defender of
Christ’s divinity, Ephrem, the most poetic of all the Fathers, the
friends Basil and Gregory of Nazianzen, known as "Cappadocians"
after the region of their birth, and John Chrysostom, whose name is
associated with the principal Byzantine liturgy. The western Church
Fathers of this period include Ambrose, the fearless bishop of
Milan, Jerome, the great but irascible Scripture scholar, and the
incomparable Augustine, whose corpus of over five million words came
to serve as the second bible of the western church. The fathers of
the sixth through the eighth centuries, often referred to as the
Later Fathers, did not have the same decisive impact on the
Catholic tradition. Their role, and the role of the three ecumenical
councils that took place in this period, was mainly to defend and
draw out some important implications of the trinitarian and
christological teaching of the first four councils. Gregory the
Great, monk turned Pope, is the greatest figure in the west during
this time. In the east, the most outstanding figures are Maximus the
Confessor, who suffered torture in defense of Christ’s full
humanity, and John Damascene who defended the veneration of icons
against those who attacked them.
Authority and
Relevance.
Some of the Early Church Fathers, especially those of the Golden
Age, have been officially recognized as "Doctors of the Church,"
meaning that they are extraordinarily reliable teachers of the
Catholic faith. It is important to remember, however, that the
Catholic Church does not regard even these as personally infallible
in all that they teach. It is rather in their common teaching, or
consensus, that the Fathers infallibly witness to the authentic
Catholic tradition (Vatican Council I, Dei Filius, 2; Vincent
of Lerins, Commonitory 2.6, 3.8, 28.72-73). In attempting to
defend a particular Catholic doctrine such as Christ’s divinity, the
apologist would do well to cite not just one Father but many and
from as wide a geographical and cultural range as possible in order
to demonstrate this consensus patrum. The Eastern Orthodox
consider the Fathers to be as authoritative as Catholics do, though
they tend to be somewhat critical of Augustine. Anglicans and many
other Protestants revere the Fathers as well, though some are more
suspicious of writings produced after the Church became entangled
with the Roman state. In fact patrology (the study of the
Church Fathers) enjoyed a renaissance following the Protestant
Reformation as Catholic and Protestant scholars alike sought
patristic support for their respective doctrines. It is notable,
however, that many of the most important texts of the Ante-Nicene
Fathers were not generally available at the time of the Reformation.
Some, like the Didache and the Apostolic Tradition of
Hippolytus, provide invaluable information regarding disputed points
and yet were only recovered in the last 150 years. These and other
writings of the Fathers of the Church prove that many aspects of
Catholic doctrine and piety rejected by some as medieval inventions
(e.g., infant baptism) are in fact part of the legacy of the ancient
Church. For Further Reading: C. Richardson, Early Christian
Fathers; Ancient Christian Writers series, Paulist Press;
Fathers of the Church series, Catholic University of America
Press; Ante-Nicene Fathers & A Select Library of Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers series; J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian
Doctrines; J. Quasten, Patrology, 4 vols; W. Jurgens,
Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols.
For more writings
by Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio, visit
www.crossroadsinitiative.com,
a site dedicated to the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the honor of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and full of Catholic Resources on topics
ranging from the Early Church Fathers to Catholic Bible Study, the 7
Sacraments and the Theology of the Body.
Early
Church Fathers Overview:
