International Catholic University
I would like to begin this course by placing our study of the Church Fathers in the context of the importance of their place in the Church at the present time. After giving some background and some introductory thoughts on the importance of studying the Church Fathers, I will examine some key dogmatic teachings of the Church: the Most Holy Trinity, Christology, the Incarnation and Redemption. I will also explore theological anthropology and sacramental theology. I will explain how the Church Fathers have contributed to our understanding of the doctrines that have developed from the first formulations of the creed which were based on Scripture, have endured through the Middle Ages into our own time, and have been renewed and given to us.
To begin I will share with you the thoughts of Pope John Paul II on the importance of studying the Church Fathers as articulated in his Apostolic Letter written on the 16th Centenary of St. Basil the Great (January 2, 1980). The Holy Father says, "Fathers of the Church is the name rightly given to those saints who by the power of their faith, the depth and riches of their teachings, gave her new life and great increase in the course of the first centuries." Note that the Holy Father begins by saying the Church Fathers are saints. Second, they have given us the riches of their teachings and of their spiritual life, including the incorporation of theology and spirituality.
The Holy Father goes on to say, "They are indeed Fathers of the Church because from them by means of the Gospel she received life. They are likewise its builders because they set up the main structures of the Church of God on the one foundation laid by the apostles, which is Christ." He uses the image of a building: the Apostles form the foundation, Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone, and the Church Fathers, in a sense, are the joists, the framework on which the structure that is the living Church of God is built. And so we are able, as is any good architect, to ask ourselves: do new thoughts, new developments, and new ideas about our faith fit in with the structure of the Church? Are they something that is integral to its organic growth? Do they develop what is already there? Or are they something foreign trying to be imposed on the structure from the outside? If the former, they are to be embraced; if the latter, they are to be set aside.
The Holy Father continues, "The Church still lives today by the life received from her Father." And so the life given to us, instilled in the Church, continues on. When we pray at Mass, we can think of how the Apostles continue to guide the Church on earth from their place in Heaven, and so too with the Church Fathers. The life that they have given to the Church continues to bear fruit in this age and every age until the end of time. "And on the structures erected by her first contractors," the Holy Father continues, "she is still built today in the joy and sorrow of her journey and her daily toil." They were therefore Fathers, and Fathers they remain forever. They are a stable structure of the Church and they fulfill a perennial function for the Church of all centuries. The study of the Church Fathers, the enrichment that they give to our Catholic spirituality, is something that never gets old. One can understand why the Second Vatican Council Fathers incorporated so much of the thought of the Fathers into the documents of that Council, and why the new Catechism of the Catholic Church is filled to overflowing with quotes and references to the Church Fathers.
The Holy Father continues, "Every subsequent proclamation and magisterium, if it is to be authentic, must be compared with their proclamation and their magisterium." It is important to understand the thought, the life, the spirit of the Church Fathers as a touchstone, as a litmus test, for all of our explorations of Catholic theology and spirituality. Does it conform? Is it organic? Is it an authentic development from the foundation and the structure, the joists, the framework given to us by the Church Fathers? If so, it is to be embraced; if not, it is to be discarded. Every charism and every ministry must draw from the vital source of their Fatherhood. Every new stone added to the sacred edifice of the Church is set in the structures already placed by the Church Fathers and must be welded and joined to them. Many priests, many religious, many of the laity who pray the Liturgy of the Hours constantly marvel at the richness of the passages given to us and handed down to us from the spirit and thought of the Church Fathers. We return time and time again to their writings so full of wisdom. We renew their memory continually. "It is with great joy," the Holy Father continues, "that in the course of the Liturgical Year we always meet our Fathers again. And every time we are strengthened in faith and encouraged in hope."
Who are the Fathers of the Church? Traditionally there have been four criteria offered as necessary qualifications to be considered a Father of the Church. First is chronology or antiquity. The Apostolic era is usually considered to begin with writers after the compilation of the Canon of the New Testament. The Apostolic Fathers include Saint Clement of Rome, who lived in the first century, died perhaps in the 80s or 90s; Saint Polycarp, the great Bishop of Smyrna martyred in his 80th year; and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, martyred in Rome in 110. The Apostolic Fathers would have personally known the Apostles and the Evangelists, the Disciples of our Lord. The era of the Church Fathers normally is considered to end in the East with Saint John of Damascene, who died in 749; and in the West with St. Isidore of Seville who died in 636. The first criteria, then, for being a Church Father is to have lived in antiquity, from the first to the seventh or eighth century.
The second criterion for being named a Father of the Church is holiness of life. Many of the Church Fathers became saints by shedding their blood as martyrs; many have been acclaimed as saints by the universal Church. One need not be canonized to be a Father of the Church, but holiness of life, and the affirmation of that, is the second of the criteria.
Third, there must be orthodoxy of doctrine. The Fathers of the Church were trailblazers and like every explorer, they did not get everything exactly right all the time. Students should not be scandalized if there is a thought or a statement in one of the Church Fathers that seems different from what is presented in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Orthodoxy of doctrine does not mean that they had everything right all of the time; it does mean that those doctrines central to the Creed, the Trinity, Incarnation, and Redemption, are affirmed and reaffirmed. Heresy, which is a denial of one of the foundational doctrines of the Church would prohibit one from being considered a doctor of the Church.
Note that doctrine is that teaching which is considered to transmit the saving truths revealed through Jesus Christ and taught by the Christian Church. Dogma is that teaching taught authoritatively by the Christian Church with the implication that one is bound to accept it. While some equate the two terms, others see doctrine as more general than dogma.
Fourth, there must be ecclesiastical approval. The writings of these men must have been preserved and handed down through the living tradition of the faith. Those whom we consider to be the Fathers of the Church are those whose teachings, whose letters, whose homilies have endured down through the centuries, have been handed down and have become part of the living tradition of the Church. Ecclesiastical approval need not be necessarily explicit, but it has to be implicit in how their writings and thought and spirit have been received and incorporated into the Church through the centuries. So the four necessary qualifications are antiquity, holiness of life, orthodoxy of doctrine, and ecclesiastical approval.
Often the Fathers are also known as doctors, or teachers, of the Church. Later men and women are also considered doctors because they possess three of the criteria - orthodoxy of teaching, holiness of life, and approval by the Church. Some doctors are Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, and Teresa of Avila.
In my introductory remarks quoting Pope John Paul II, I have touched upon the importance of the Church Fathers. But why do we study them? The Holy Father has given us the basic reasons. They are the framers of the structure of the Church built upon Christ Jesus as the cornerstone and the Apostles as the foundation. Specifically, they are the privileged witnesses to traditions. Founders, whether they be founders of institutions or founders of religious societies, always have a privileged position. They are the ones who bring together a sense of mission, a sense of direction. Analogously in the growth and in the development of the Church, the teachings of the Fathers have a very special place. They were the closest to the sources; the early Fathers, referred to as Apostolic Fathers, personally knew the Apostles and the Disciples. They had access to the purity of the sources of the living tradition, the very teachings of those closest to Christ, and they were the ones that developed the first structures of the Church.
Think of all of the important "firsts" in the ecclesial order that happened in those early centuries. The canon of Scripture was decided upon. In the first centuries, through the leadership of the Fathers, the Church affirmed those writings which are the inspired writings forming the corpus of the New Testament and they decided which ones were authentic and which ones were not to be added to the canon of Scripture. The early canonical discipline and sacramental discipline were developed by the Church Fathers. The basic structure of our Roman Rite was set in the Patristic era and the basic flow of the Eucharistic Liturgy today follows that pattern established by the Fathers of the Church in those early centuries. They were the ones who brought together and articulated in a systematic way what we have come to know as the deposit of our faith. We have the surety of knowing the truth of Jesus Christ because of the creeds, which were formulated and professed in the time of the Fathers. During their time, the Baptismal Creeds were developed and became the foundation of the great creeds of the early Ecumenical Councils. Many aspects of our Catholic life, our Catholic ritual, our Catholic teaching, were brought together for the first time in the age of the Church Fathers.
The Church Fathers also had a wonderful sense of the unity among the churches. They recognized legitimate diversity in liturgical matters, in canonical matters, in matters of discipline, and always held the one faith, the one altar, the one sacrifice, the one priest who is Jesus Christ. They developed many rich and diverse liturgies in the early centuries and no one saw them or experienced them as a threat to the unity of the Church. Theological schools developed with different emphases. The Alexandrian School focused more on the spiritual interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures and Antiochene School focused on the literal or historical interpretation of Sacred Scriptures. Both of these were seen as part of the full understanding of the Word of God. Likewise in the early centuries the Church existed with some tension, but generally with great love, support and affection between the Greek East and the Latin West.
The Fathers of the Church had a tremendous sense of what we mean by the Tradition of our Catholic Church. So often in our own day Tradition takes on kind of a pejorative sense. What belongs to Tradition is too often thought of as static, fossilized, and out of date, needing to be left behind. But the Church Fathers saw Tradition as a multiform organism pulsating with life. While we express Tradition in the written word, Tradition is also the lived communion of members of the Church surrounding the one altar, the one sacrifice, the one priest Jesus Christ. From the Church Fathers we can take confidence that Tradition is not a static hanging on to the past, but an enthusiastic sense of security and freedom, of being able to develop and grow but knowing from where we come and knowing that we have our feet firmly planted in the rich heritage of the past that has been mediated down through the centuries.
The Church Fathers are the guarantors of an authentic Catholic Tradition. The teaching of the Church Fathers was central to the documents coming forth from the Second Vatican Council, and there are many references in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church to the Church Fathers. Many great Christian men and women have found their way either back to, or into, the Catholic Church through meditating and reflecting upon the writings of the Church Fathers. John Henry Cardinal Newman, a great nineteenth century English Cardinal who in his younger years was a member of the Church of England, fell in love with the writings and thought and spirit of the Church Fathers. And in his Apologia pro vita sua, he points out that he saw in them the true Church, the universal Church, the Catholic Church, and they became very instrumental in his acceptance and embrace of the Roman Catholic Church.
For all of these reasons it is important to become knowledgeable, to become immersed in the spirit, in the thought and in the prayer of the Church Fathers who continue to guide us from their place in Heaven.
Theology is a broader concept and reality than Christian doctrine or dogma. Beginning from the revealed truths taught by Church doctrine or dogma, it adds a work of human reasoning. It often calls upon other branches of human knowledge to seek to better understand what has been revealed and what is accepted by faith. The way one does theology will vary according to one's method and the instruments of reason used.
The four gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John - are seen to be types of theology. Each author presents the life and work of Jesus Christ, choosing and organizing his material to stress some theme or to emphasize certain aspects of the Christian message. A work of reason within faith was already going on in the formation of the oral traditions which preceded the actual writing of the gospel. Redactors of the gospels added their own work of reason and organization.
The Fathers continued this use of reason in presenting Christian belief. They did this work of theology in their expositions of Scripture, usually for pastoral reasons; in their preaching, especially in homilies on Scripture or the liturgy, or in other types of sermons; and in letters written in reply to questions about problems in Scripture.
What about their theological method? The great Catholic theologian, Fr. John Courtney Murray, said the study of the Church Fathers serves to bridge the gap between theology and spirituality. The Fathers of the Church are not only teachers of Christian doctrine, but also masters of the spiritual life. Not only do their works give guidance to the mind in its search for the truth of God, they also afford inspiration to the whole soul in its search for God himself. A fundamental fact that I hope you will remember in relation to the Fathers of the Church is that their method is not an intellectual method in isolation or separation from their prayer, from their love for Christ and his Church. They bring together spirituality, thought, and pastoral concern and dedication, to the mission of the Church. It is integral and essential to our Catholic lives to bring together in a creative way the intellect and the spirit. The Church Fathers were saints as well as great thinkers. The first point of their theological method is to never have theological thought or theological discourse outside of a living relationship with and love for Christ and His Church.
Second, the Church Fathers always return to the Word of God, the Sacred Scriptures. Some have described the Church Fathers as commentators on Sacred Scripture. They often quote Sacred Scripture. They have a facility with and a deep knowledge and love for the Word of God. In line after line of their writing they make reference to the passages of Sacred Scripture. They do not footnote them like we do because they were writing in a time when the entire Christian community was immersed in the Word of God. They heard it proclaimed forcefully and powerfully in the liturgies; they memorized passages of Sacred Scripture.
We can say, then, that the Church Fathers are primarily and essentially commentators on Sacred Scripture. They did not have some of the advantages that we have in light of developments of modern Biblical studies. In Biblical exegesis we are privileged to have a developed historical critical method and other ways of better knowing the origins and the first meaning of the Scriptures. What they did have is described very poignantly by Pope Pius XII, when he says they have a "sort of sweet intuition about Heavenly things through an admirable penetration of Spirit wherefore they go further into the depth of the Divine Word." The Fathers go further into the depth of the Divine Word and while they did not have all of the advantages of modern Biblical studies, they had something that we have not been able to recapture, nor has any age been able to recapture, an intuitive sense of the depths of the spiritual meaning of the Word of God. We see that we need to bring together this sweet intuition of the Church Fathers with the very best of modern Biblical exegesis. The Church Fathers are able to tap into the spiritual meaning of the Sacred Scripture in a way that no one has been able to replicate since. Read the Church Fathers, read their commentaries on the books of the Sacred Scripture, to bring out and to partake in this sweet intuitive understanding of the living Word of God.
The Fathers were not academics in the modern sense. Most of them were pastors, who were concerned with the every day problems of their people. Saint Augustine, one of the great Western Church Fathers, wrote his classic, The City of God, in response to the accusations being made against the Christians for the destruction of Rome at the hands of the barbarians. Augustine was a bishop. He was fully and passionately involved in the lives of his people, the lives of his community. This is true with all of the Church Fathers; they were very much a part of the community in which they lived and responded to real questions that were being asked by real people in very concrete and specific pastoral situations. Their thought and their theology is extremely pastoral and therefore very important and apropos to our own study and our own reflection. They did not consider themselves as innovators. They were not trying to come up with a new idea or a new thesis, but rather saw themselves as servants. They were the interpreters and guardians of the norms of Sacred Scripture and of the living pulsating life of the Church that had been handed down to them by their predecessors.
To say that they were servants is not to say that they were not originators. Each age faces different questions and pastoral demands. The challenges facing the Church Fathers were these: how to present the good news of Jesus Christ in Greek-Roman culture, and how to approach the philosophy and the wisdom of the age. The vast majority of the Church Fathers saw an opportunity to build upon the philosophy and the wisdom of the age in which they were living. To do this they had to become masters of the philosophy of the age. They had to be able to distinguish the authentic from that which was in error. They had to veer away from the errors of extreme rationalism and syncretism that was infecting the age. They began the great task of Christian enculturation, and again we see a parallel with our own day. As the Church today we must ask ourselves what is our role and our place in relation to the many cultures around the world. Do we retreat from culture or do we try to become the leaven, do we try to take the very best of the culture around us and bring it to a higher level?
There was a famous letter written by Saint Augustine of Canterbury who had been sent to England by Pope Gregory the Great in the late 500s. When he got to England, which at one time had been evangelized but had returned to its pagan ways, Saint Augustine wrote back to Pope Saint Gregory the Great. He said, "Your Holiness, what we have found are magnificent temples with pagan idols. How do we handle this?" Saint Gregory's pastoral response was, "Tear down the idols but keep the temple." In other words, destroy what cannot be assimilated into our authentic Christian faith but build upon what is, what is good, what is sound in a particular culture. This expresses the pastoral program of the Church Fathers: to affirm, to develop, to collaborate with the wisdom of the age, but only with that which could be authentically and truthfully incorporated and become part of the good news of Jesus Christ. Saint Augustine says, "If those who are to be called philosophers have said true things in harmony with our faith they should be claimed for our use." What a wonderful and perennially valid pastoral norm.
The theological method of the Fathers, then, was very scriptural, very pastoral, very much in tune with the culture and the times of their day.
Another characteristic of the writings of the Fathers is their strong defense of the faith that had been entrusted to them through Sacred Scripture and living Tradition. They were the great apologists for the correct understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity, for our Christological beliefs, and for our Ecclesiology. They were enlightened promoters of the intellect. They began to explain the teachings of the faith using some of the terminology of the philosophy of the time. They were not afraid to develop and expand the solid and inspired teaching of Sacred Scripture. Saint Augustine remarks how the heretics, in a paradoxical way, played a positive role in the growth of the deposit of the faith. Why? Because when the perennial understandings of the Trinity, of Christ, of our Blessed Mother, of the Church, were being challenged or questioned or refuted, the Fathers were moved to reflect on them more deeply, to explain them more clearly, to try to articulate them in ways that spoke to the intellectual understanding of their time. Out of that came the great articles and great creeds of our faith.
The First Ecumenical Councils, of which there were four in the Patristic age, were important in formulating the teachings of the Church with regard to her central doctrines. The Council of Nicaea in 325, and the First Council of Constantinople in 381, have given us the Nicene-Constantinople Creed. The Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon in 431 in 451 respectively have given us the great understanding of Our Blessed Mother as Theotokos, Mother of God. They have given us our understanding of the Divine Person of Jesus Christ having a human nature as well as a divine nature, a hypostatic union. All of these clarifications of our faith were the result of the absolute dedication, determination and faithful giving of self by the Fathers to the defense of the Faith. The results: progress in our statements of dogma and always fuller restatement of the traditions and teachings of our faith.
Another characteristic of the theology of the Church Fathers is that they held a great sense of mystery. The Fathers had a profound sense of the Divine presence. One of the desires expressed so often in our own age is the hope that in our liturgical celebrations we can promote and foster an ever greater sense of the mystery of God's presence. Again we can look back to the age of the Church Fathers. One has to only reflect upon the experiences of Christian initiation. Today we generally explain every part of the Rite of Christian Initiation before the candidate receives it; in the Patristic Church, the catechumens received the Sacraments of Initiation before they were given the explanation of the ceremonies. The Rite of Christian Initiation was meant to be an experiential rite, they were to experience what it means to be immersed in the waters of the Baptismal font, to be anointed with the Sacred Chrism, to be enrobed with the new white garment, to be physically a new creation. The neophytes were presented to the Bishop in the Cathedral for the anointing with Sacred Chrism and for the reception of their First Holy Communion. Only afterwards were the practical details of the rite explained. They experienced a tremendous sense of awe and wonder. Everything, including the architecture and the environment, was ordered in such a way as to accent the awesomeness of being in the presence of God. They were very much immersed in the experience of this mystery of God.
To summarize the theological method of the Church Fathers, we can say it was, first and foremost, based on Sacred Scripture. Second, it brought spirituality and theological thought together in an integral whole. Third, it possesses originality while relating to its contemporary culture. It is characterized by an absolute dedication to the defense of the truths of our Catholic faith. Finally it communicates a sense of the great mystery of being in the presence of God, a sense of wonder and of awe at being a part of His holy nation, His chosen people, of experiencing the love and the presence of Christ through His Church and in a particular way through the different rites within the Church. We can summarize by reaffirming the great cultural, spiritual and apostolic wealth given to us through the Church Fathers. We have received from them many classics of not only Christian culture but indeed of our Western culture.
Like us, the Church Fathers were called to bridge the Gospel and the secular culture in which they lived. In our own day we have the same opportunity and challenge. Our Holy Father is praying and asks all of us to pray, for a time of great blessing, and of reawakening, in which we will be prepared to be the build a bridge to the un-evangelized and the un-catechized. It is our opportunity, in our own way and in our own day, to be that fertile ground upon which the new evangelization called for by our Holy Father can take root. The Church Fathers were strong witnesses to Christian moral behavior. These men are models of great dedication and great determination. Saint Polycarp, one of the Apostolic Fathers was well into his eighties when he was asked to burn incense before a pagan god. He said, "I have been faithful all these years, do you think I would ever be unfaithful in my old age?" He was a tremendous witness. We likewise are called to be witnesses and to demonstrate that same clarity of vision and that same dedication in our own age.
In concluding this first lecture, let me offer a few short words on how to study the Church Fathers. This whole area is divided into what we refer to as Patristics and Patrology. Patrology focuses on the life, history, writings, and thought of the particular Fathers of the Church. Patristics focuses more broadly on the theological thought of the Church Fathers, and includes the history of doctrines derived from conciliar documents and liturgy. In the next lectures I will look at some of the themes that run through all of the Church Fathers with regard to the Trinity, Christology, the Sacraments and then look at some of the exemplary models of the Church Fathers. What is most important, whether it be from the perspective of Patrology or Patristics, is to know the Church Fathers as living intercessors and mediators for our Church today. My hope is that all of us will get to know their thought and their spirit more intimately and personally, so that we can always stay connected with them, as they remain connected with us from their place in Heaven where they continue to mediate and intercede on our behalf.
These review topics are to help you understand the lecture and prepare for the final exam; they are not a written assignment.
Describe the four criteria necessary to be considered a Father of the Church.
Describe the theological methods of the Church Fathers.
Define Patrology, Patristics, dogma, doctrine, theology and heresy.
Read articles in The New Catholic Encyclopedia on Patristics and Patrology.
Read John Paul II, Apostolic Letter Written on the Sixteenth Centenary of St. Basil the Great, January 2, 1980.