Product Description

A classic resource for the scholar, student, or minister, the thirty-eight volume Early Church Fathers, including the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First and Second Series, is now available with a new look and an added annotated index of the authors and works (bound with volume 10 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and available only in the Hendrickson edition). An invaluable primary resource, each of the three sets features introductions, helpful notes, references to Scripture citations, and indices of key persons, places, and theological issues. From the Apostolic Fathers to the Seven Ecumenical Councils, from the apocryphal gospels to the Arian controversy, this work is one of the most complete collections of the writing in the Christian churchÂ’s first 800 years available today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1330432 in Books
• Published on: 1994-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 38
• Binding: Hardcover
• 22896 pages

About the Author

Henry Wace (1836-1924), former Dean of Canterbury and noted turn-of-the century scholar, author, and editor, is especially known for his work on the four-volume Dictionary of Christian Biography and with Philip Schaff on the fourteen-volume Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series.

Customer Reviews

A wonderful, but outdated resource. . .
Five stars for anything that gets people to read the actual writings of the Fathers of the Church. Minus one star for the rather overbearing editorialization by Phillip Schaff and others, most of whom try to filter the texts through a strongly Reformation lense. This just isn't fair, and it's not good scholarship. Minus a second star for datedness. Due to discoveries of better manuscripts, etc., there are now better and more complete translations of these works. This set is a starting point -- not an ending point, and should not be considered as such.

For current critical translations, see the "Fathers of the Church" series and the "Ancient Christian Writers" series. (But be prepared to purchase those books one volume at a time.)

A Treasure-Trove of Early Christian Writings"
In this series an indescribable wealth of primary sources will be found, which consists of apologetic, theological, philosophical, exegetic, ethical, dogmatic, and historical writings. Many documents and decrees, early church liturgies and hymns, along with an abundance of letters and tracts from the most illustrious and prolific authors of our Christian past are preserved here as well in a complete and clear turn of the century English prose translation. Moreover, this 38 volume set includes the principle writers of the Church from St Clement of Rome, a contemporary of St Paul, to St John Damascene, the last of the Eastern fathers who wrote during the 8th century AD. In the West, Pope Gregory the Great's works are the last included in this series, since the end of his pontificate essentially marks the West's shift from the world of late antiquity into the dawn of the Dark Ages. Arguably, some works by Latin authors like St Benedict, Isidore of Seville, Prudentius, Sidonius, and Rufinus of Aquiliea should have joined the ranks with other Western fathers, since the editors saw it necessary to place in the works of John Damascene, who wrote well over a century later than Isidore, the latest of the authors listed above. However, the editors judgement to place St Gregory the Great as the last of the Western fathers may be vindicated, although to leave authors like Prudentius, Rufinus, Sidonius, and Benedict out, who all wrote and thrived before Gregory's birth, may be open for scrutiny. Also, these works are all translated and edited by Protestant scholars and divines, so the footnotes, prefaces, and profiles of these Church Fathers and their works tend to be shrouded with Protestant leanings. Although, Catholics--and anyone for that matter--will nevertheless find this series to be the most complete and reliable source of early Christian writings. The Catholic University of America currently has many of the Church Fathers writings available, which are definitely worth checking out as well.

Necessary Reading for Every Christian
The study of ecclesiastical history and the writings of the Saints are a necessity for a proper appreciation of Scripture and its interpretation. Philip Schaff's Church History is one of the few complete ecclesiastical history collections available. There are more modern and reliable translations of the ancient Greek and Latin texts (Ancient Christian Writers and Fathers of the Church Series), which abstain from sectarianism; unfortunately, the publishers have not yet gathered these works into a single collection. Despite the shortcomings of this edition, Philip Schaff's Church History is notable, if only for its presentation of the Reformed perspective on the development of ecclesiastic doctrine.

Schaff was guided by a number of principles in his History. He was convinced, for example, that other church histories conformed to a "dry, lifeless style" that failed to probe the "main thing in history, the ideas which rule it and reveal themselves in the process." Most church histories -he believed- failed to foster a sense organic development, leaving students unable to understand their movement's place in the overall history of the church.

Following philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, who posited that cycles of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis raise what is preserved to a higher level, Schaff maintained: "spiritual growth is likewise a process of annihilation, preservation, and exaltation." An example of this process in Christian thought and practice was -according to Schaff- the emergence of the Protestant Reformation out of the medieval Catholic Church. "The practical piety and morality of Roman Catholicism," said Schaff, "is characteristically legal, punctilious, un-free and anxious; but distinguished also for great sacrifices, the virtue of obedience, and full consecration to the Church." The Protestant Reformation brought a needed corrective through a faith that "is evangelically free, cheerful and joyous in the possession of justification by grace."

In effect Schaff presents Protestantism as the heir of catholicity at the expense of the Roman See (his description of "the Papists" is outrageous), liberating doctrine from the "constraints" of ecclesial authority. Yet he conveniently minimizes the shortcomings of Protestantism, namely its fractious nature and the replacement of Apostolic Tradition with the tradition of subjective interpretation of Scripture. Fortunately he recognized the need for union, envisioning the emergence of a synthetic "evangelical-catholic" Christianity in the future.

Schaff utilizes heavy editorializing to present the writings of the Church Fathers as representing his viewpoint; this unfairly forces the reader to accept his overbearing perspective at the expense of the Church Fathers. If you are approaching this work from a non-Protestant background, you might find it necessary to skip the introductions and the footnotes. Despite the sectarian presentation of Church history, I recommend this work, as it makes the works of the Apostolic Fathers accessible at a reasonable price.