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The Fathers

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Pope Benedict's "The Fathers" is a collection of the texts from his Wednesday audiences, delivered between March of 2007 and February of 2008. During these weekly audiences, the Pope introduces us to the lives and works of twenty-six different Fathers of the Church, from the Apostolic Fathers to Saint Augustine. The audiences were orgionally given in Italian, while this edition is the official Vatican publication of the English translation.

In "The Fathers" Pope Benedict introduces us to what is most noble, holy and edifying in the lives and works of these Fathers of the Church. He begins with the early Apostolic Fathers, such as Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome and Saint Ignatius of Antioch, who lived soon after the apostles. He devoted two audiences to several third, fourth and fifth century Fathers, including Origen of Alexandria, Saint Basil, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Jerome. He also introduces two Syriac Fathers, Aphraates the Sage and Saint Ephrem the Syrian. Finally, he finishes with five seperate audiences on the life and works of Saint Augustine. These are not intended to be critical biographies but rather edifying and interest sparking introductions, each one lasting several pages.

Other fathers included in this book are St. Justin Martyr, St. Irenaeus, St. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, St. Cyrian, Eusebius, St. Athanasius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Hilary of Poitiers, St. Eusebius of Vercelli, St. Ambrose, St. Maximus of Turin, St. Chromatius, and St. Paulinus.

If you are inerested in church history, the lives of saints or just are curious to learn more, I highly recommend this book.

A couple of years ago, I picked up a book on the Church Fathers, those leaders of the early Church who came within the first few generations after the Apostles. It was a heavy tome with small print; it seemed very intimidating and I never did get around to reading it. That is why I was so excited to get my hands on a copy of "The Fathers" by Pope Benedict XVI (Our Sunday Visitor, 2008). The material in this book is a slightly edited record of the weekly general audiences Pope Benedict gave on this topic from March 7, 2007 to February 27, 2008. It is incredibly readable and very interesting.

The Church Fathers are fascinating to learn about. Many were converts to the faith and arrived at the Church through a variety of spiritual journeys. They were highly educated and several worked to integrate Greek philosophy with the Christian faith. They also struggled with many of the theological questions that now form the foundation of our faith: Christ as both God and man; the Trinity, and what it means to be a baptized Christian.

Pope Benedict began his treatment of this subject with St. Clement, the third successor of St. Peter who led the Church in the last years of the first century. He intervened in the Church of Corinth in what was the first exercise of Roman Primacy after St. Peter's death. In his letter to Corinth, "he clearly explains the doctrine of Apostolic Succession. . .The Father sent Jesus Christ, who in turn sent the Apostles. They then sent the first heads of communities and established that they would be succeeded by other worthy men. . . .The Church is above all a gift of God and not something we ourselves created."

Pope Benedict then devotes his attention to St. Ignatius of Antioch who was "the first person in Christian literature to attribute to the Church the adjective 'catholic' or 'universal'." St. Justin did his best to both defend the faith and explain it. He believed that both the Old Testament and Greek philosophy were two paths that led to Christ. St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote the first catechism of the Catholic Church. Origen of Alexandria preached a message of love, as he was convinced that "the best way to become acquainted with God is through love." Tertullian would eventually join the Montanist sect but he gave the Church the terms "one substance" and "three persons" for help in explaining the mystery of the Trinity. Cyprian reflected on the communal message of the "Our Father": "Our prayer is public and common; and when we pray, we pray not for one, but for the whole people, because we, the whole people, are one."

Other Church Fathers Pope Benedict invites us to spend time with include St. Cyril of Jerusalem who emphasized the Christian's rebirth through baptism. St. Basil was one of the Fathers of the Church's social doctrine and encouraged interaction with the culture at large. St. Gregory of Nyssa reflected on the beauty of man as being created in the image of God. St. Hilary of Poitiers defended the divinity of Christ by quoting from both the Old and New Testament. St. Jerome translated the Bible into the Latin vernacular. St. Paulinus of Nola wrote beautiful poetry and made use of religious art to instruct pilgrims. Lastly, Pope Benedict focuses on St. Augustine of Hippo, perhaps the most famous Father of them all, who maintained that "faith and reason . . . must always go hand in hand."

Pope Benedict is a gifted teacher, speaker, and writer, and "The Fathers" is more evidence of this. He is able to take a complicated history and make it accessible to all. "The Fathers" provides a great introduction into the lives and works of many of the great men who helped to form the early Church. It is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to learn more about Church history.

The papacy of Pope Benedict XVI continues to be a great blessing for all of us. First, the Pope released his book Jesus of Nazareth(and we anxiously await the follow-up to it--correcting and recalling who Jesus is in this excellent book, next The Apostleswas released where Pope Benedict connect Jesus to the founding of the Church, the establishment of the Apostles and showed how the succession of the Apostles is something we find within the Bible. Now the Pope releases The Fatherswhich shows how the early Church continued to grow through the early thinkers who continued to unpack the deep meaning of Christ found in the Bible and expressed in the Church's spiritual practice. Our Sunday Visitor has done another excellent job in presenting the Pope's teaching in the same way that they previously did with The Apostles.
The book is peppered throughout with great sayings of the fathers of the Church, such as "The man without Christ is dust and shadow," (p.170) spoken by Paulinus of Nola or the words of Ambrose "Omnia Christus est nobis! "To us Christ is all!" (p.133).
Those looking to learn more about Jesus Christ can do no better than the encounter with the early Fathers who unpacked the meaning of the Bible and everything that the Word of God pointed to--Jesus.
I am the author of The How-To Book of the Mass: Everything You Need to Know but No One Ever Taught You

I believe that this book is a brilliant, thoughtful account of the early Fathers of the Church. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and appreciate Christian faith. Richard R. Roach, S.J.

I first want to point out that there is another book on Amazon, Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine that is identical to this book - so get one or the other, you don't need both.

The Fathers follows the same format and approach as Pope Benedict's earlier excellent work, The Apostles. Here we have the following generations that received the teaching and the burning love for Christ and His Church from the Twelve. These are not in-depth studies, but precise character portraits that place each Church Father in context, explaining his importance and impact on our Church and our Faith.

All of them Saints, most of them martyrs, these where the generations that battled heresy, muddled thinking, and politics, to wrest the deposit of faith from Emperors and schismatic Bishops. All Christianity owes great thanks to the Holy Spirit for guiding these men in settling hard questions of Faith and Understanding.

Pope Benedict does a wonderful job in showing us to whom the torch was passed in those early decades after our Lord, continuing to knit the chain that links us from Christ to our present day.

One last comment: take note of how many of these Fathers whom we now revere were run out of town in their own day. They remain with us 180 decades later not because they were popular in their time (though some of them undoubtedly were), but because they clung to the Truth and would not compromise it for personal gain. Out of what stuff are such men made? And where are they today? Where are the Bishops, especially in the United States, that are willing to risk all - reputation, status, comfort - and boldly pronounce the Truth like these Fathers? Where are you? We are hungry...

In our time, with Europe and the west slowly falling into the sinkhole which is secularism, it is wonderful to have this new resource by Pope Benedict. It's a reminder of just how deep Christianity's roots go into the western world, and how many people have been martyred for the church.

The collection starts with Clement and ends with Augustine, covering all of the the fathers with a brief biography as well as an overview of what they wrote about.

Ignatius of Antioch (in about 105 AD) was the first to use the word 'Catholic' to describe the church. Although Ignatius, and all others, plead for unity, by "the second century the Church was threatened by...Gnostics (who) claimed to" (p 25) have secret knowledge that could save a few. Irenaeus responded that "truth and salvation are available to all" (p 27). The Catholic church, said Irenaeus, was "dispersed throughout the world...having received this faith from the apostles...For the churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe anything...different, nor do those in Spain...." p 28) but holds to the same Catholic teachings everywhere.

It is interesting to find the pope calling Origen 'crucial" (p 35) because he defended allegorism in scripture.

No matter how well acquainted you are with the fathers, you will find gems to ponder. For example, Eusebius of Vercelli is not well known. As with so many of the other early Christians, he was "condemned to exile, as were so many other bishops of the East and West: such as Athanasius, Hillary of Poitiers...and Hosius of Cordoba.


Everyone will be touched by Pope Benedict's frequent personal statements. At one point he says, "to dialogue with God, with his Word, is in a certain sense a presence of heaven, a presence of God. To draw near to the biblical texts, above all to the New Testament, is essential for the believer" (p 145).

In this summary account of the early Church Fathers, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI, in a series of catechetical addresses, introduces and instructs his audience on the life, writings and teachings of the primary ecclesiastics of nascent Christianity from St. Clement of Rome (ca. 30-100 AD) to St Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD). Pope Benedict's accounts of each of the Fathers lives is very dense with quotations from their own writings and from the testimonia of their contemporaries, so that these are very lively, inspiring accounts that capture the heart and soul of the Church Fathers and the era in which they thrived. Furthermore, these accounts are firmly grounded upon Apostolic authority and are the fruits of the Holy Father's life-long devotion to patristic scholarship. But these accounts are far from being only "scholarly," for they are--and it goes without saying--pastoral and catechetical, as well. They are pastoral in the sense of cultivating not simply a literary, biographical, or doctrinal understanding of the Fathers, but in encouraging an active and spiritual devotion to they, who were themselves true exemplars of Christ. They are catechetical in the sense that these accounts are didactic, instructional, characterizations of many of the central figures who have made their own unique contributions to theology, biblical scholarship and the religious life, while preserving the apostolic confession during the developmental stages of the Church. Let it also be said, that twenty-six of the Church Fathers are surveyed here, from both East and West, on Fathers greater and lesser known. Overall, this finely written, concise overview of the early Church Fathers is a perfect fusion of scholarly knowledge and spiritual insight--just the kind of work you would expect from the Holy Father on a subject such as the Fathers of the Church.

Having read the transcripts of some of Pope Benedict's audiences where he addresses contemporary concerns of attendees in a semi impromptu method I was interested to learn how he presented the Fathers of the Church at some of his weekly scheduled general audiences from March 2007 through February 2008. As usual, his clear and direct approach in these now published addresses did not disappoint.

What interested me in particular was Benedict's description of his favorite theologian, St. Augustine. It was evident that he especially reverenced this early Father both from the length of his treatment of Augustine (the subject of five audiences) and from what Benedict highlighted--approaches and teachings which are clearly present in Benedict's views and teachings. So, for example, one can imagine from his own attitude and clear teaching behavior that Benedict has made what he calls Augustine's second conversion very much his own, namely "to understand that one reaches others with simplicity and humility."

There are hidden gems throughout this book, which is clearly accessible to the somewhat informed and believing Christian. The references and insights into praying the Scriptures, or a "lectio divina"- type prayer, which is becoming more and more common now and is strongly urged by Benedict, appear in his profiles of many of the Fathers--of course Jerome, as well as Origen, Ambrose and Paulinus of Noa.

Benedict's treatment of the Fathers of the Church is necessarily brief and handicapped by such brevity from going deeper in a more discursive manner which might give us a fuller appreciation of them. However there is enough thoughtful and attractive content to prompt us to further reading of their works containing unfathomable richness for our life, faith and spiritual journey. With this short treatise, Benedict, ever the teacher as well as pastor, persuasively invites us to do so.

This is a great overview of the Church Fathers. The book covers twenty-six Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St. Augustine of Hippo. Since Vatican II the study of the Church Fathers has taken on much more importance. From reading each of the chapters I was able to select certain Fathers and go back and read their original writings. The best way to really understand the Fathers is to read and study them in the original. Pope Benedict organizes each chapter by focusing on the Life and Writings and then the Teachings of each of the Fathers. It is an amazing condensed book that gives an excellent summary of each of the Fathers.

In "The Fathers," Pope Benedict XVI continues walking through, to use his charming phrase, "the portrait gallery" of the founders of the Church that he began in "The Apostles." Once again, Our Sunday Visitor assembled a collection of the Holy Father's weekly addresses. On the book jacket, OSV says that the book focuses on the generation or two after the Apostles but the vast majority of the theologians, bishops, monks and holy men that Benedict mediates on come from the tumultuous fourth century. While more historically grounded than his sketches in "The Apostles," Benedict continues to reflect on spiritual lessons that can be learned from the thoughts as well as the lives of these key figures. While the Holy Father's thoughts on a number of the more obscure figures offers light on a number of neglected thinkers, one has to concede that Benedict's meditations on Jerome and, especially, Augustine are the highpoint of the book. Benedict had focused on Augustine during his grad school days and he returns to that great doctor of the Church now, over five decades after he first encountered Agustine's books. These sketches provide a welcome introductory mediation on a number of the key figures who developed the Church.