Customer Reviews

Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Bryan Liftin has written a very inclusive and dynamic book about the early church fathers, an excellent narrative of historical, biographical and theological themes. Full disclosure: I am not an evangelical Christian so I cannot comment from that perspective whether the book fulfills a need for that community. However, as one studying more about Eastern Orthodox Christianity I can say without fear of contradiction that this book provides anyone interested in the origins and development of the Christian ideas and beliefs which are still current in modern times a broad and intelligent introduction. Liftin covers the trail blazed by the early Fathers in a linear approach, looking both at the history of the life of each one but also how each develops the important articles of faith and determination of the sacred texts from their predecessors. One can read how the theology of the Trinity,for example, accepted by almost all Christian faiths of today was painstakingly developed and resolved in a sometimes conflicting and contradictory manner. The reader is readily engaged by Lifkin in this pursuit and can follow a path made very clear despite so many fits and stumbles during those early days. You can easily see how dedicated the Fathers were to the insistence on truth and true knowledge and understanding of Christ as a living person and as the transcendent eternal son of the Father. All of us who have believed in Christianity owe a great debt to the precision and life-long dedication of these remarkable historical figures and their writings concerning the true faith. Lifkin spends very little time proselytizing about the evangelical Christian's perspective, which really adds much to the fact that I think anyone of Christian belief will find this work enlightening, well documented, and 'orthodox', meaning the one truth unchanged as it was given to the Fathers from the Apostles. There's no question that he is opening a new door for fundamentalist Christians by acceding to the idea that the tradition which was given to the Church and maintained through the early Fathers is extremely relevant to evangelicals as it is to Eastern Orthodox and the Church of Rome and its various off-shoots such as the Anglican, Lutheran and Calvinist faiths.

Dr. Bryan Litfin has crafted a real treasure here, and I commend it to you enthusiastically. I am NOT a biblical scholar or a devoted student of early-Church history, but that's the beauty of this work: It's highly accessible not only to the academic but also to the "average" Christian (if any such thing existed!) who realizes how richly beneficial a deeper understanding of our faith's family tree can be. Full disclosure: Bryan and I became friends back when we were undergrads at the University of Tennessee, so I'm a bit partial. But to be candid, I expected this book to read more like a scholarly, classroom text. Wrong! It certainly does brim with top-rate scholarship, but its pages also crackle with anecdotes, metaphors, modern-day parallels, and vivid language, all perfectly pitched. With this excellent work, Bryan's talents emerge from the Moody classroom and enter the larger arena of published study and discussion where they most definitely belong.

I was able to read this book in a pre-release version for Dr. Bryan Litfin's "Early Christian Thought" class and I was very impressed. I have read many introductions about the early church fathers and I have to say Litfin's work was the most interesting. It has an easy to follow format that grabs your attention by the telling stories of different church fathers. If this is a subject that you believe you will never have any interest in (or know nothing about), try reading this book before you make your final decision. It is a great introduction to at least 10 of the most famous church fathers; telling their stories and giving a short extract of some of their writings.

This book will hopefully peak the interest of many who have no idea what a "Tertullian" is and lead many to study the ancient roots of the Christian faith. I hope that Dr. Bryan Litfin continues to write such interesting books for beginners and more advanced readers. I look forward to reading more from him.

Dr. Litfin's Book "Getting to Know the Church Fathers", overall is a helpful overview of a topic that modern Christians know very little about. He sheds important light on some of the doctrinal disputes came about, and how these figures were influential in shaping Christianity as we know it today. Another part of this book which i particularly enjoyed was that Dr. Litfin included short sections of writings from the church fathers at the end of each chapter and suggestions where one can learn more about the particular church father.

Dr. Litfin writes in a very plain style and is very easy to read. However, one of the downfalls in being so easy to read is that in some cases the book becomes to feel like it is not especially scholarly. This is demonstrated by his introduction to the church fathers in which he gave short modern anecdotes which i found to be superfluous. Another minor issue that he had with this book was it seemed to me that Dr. Litfin skimmed over or ignored altogether some of the blemishes that these Church Fathers had.

Overall, this book is definitely worth reading. Dr. Litfin has indeed blessed the church with this work.

There are several other reviews already, and they are mostly excellent and spot on. I don't know how much I really have to add. I've spent the last few years studying the Early Church Fathers, and also come from a Protestant tradition. The Patristic theologians are certainly lost on most Protestants--especially those who come from Baptistic traditions, as I do. Liftin makes this point, and writes the book to help break this unfortunate tradition. All in all, he does a great job opening up the first few centuries of the Church for those of us who haven't had much exposure to it.

One reviewer mentioned the superfluous stories at the beginning of each chapter. Some are even just plain silly. It reminds me of the many cheesy jokes I've heard pastors make at the beginning of a sermon, attempting to break the ice. Just skip these introductions and get to the point. A story (from Liftin) about some college kid who wanders around on the West Coast loses my attention instead of gaining it.

I could argue that the format of the book may be lacking. He organizes it by specific writers (i.e., Tertullian, Athanasius, etc.). In order to deal with specific issues (such as Alexandrian vs. Antiochene theologies), he goes off on what amounts to be tangents. It might have been better to simply add excurses between chapters, or something. Bottom line--there can be some difficult gear-shifting in the middle of a chapter that might cause someone truly being introduced to the Patristic era to get a little bogged down. But, this is really a minor quibble at best.

Overall, Liftin does a great job dealing with a very large subject matter. A comprehensive introduction would be more than any person needing an introduction would want to read. But, condensing the material into one, accessible volume leaves a huge editorial nightmare. I think Liftin walked a fine line, and walked it well. He gives enough pertinent information about theologians and the issues they faced to let the reader know what's important and whet his/her appetite. At the end of each chapter, the reader will find discussion questions (most of which seemed worthwhile, which is fairly uncommon in other books I've read), a short selection from the theologian featured in the chapter (which should increase the whetting of the appetite), as well as a short, briefly annotated bibliography for further study of each theologian. This should prove quite helpful for the reader. I know one of my biggest questions when I began studying the Patristic era was, "Where do I go next?"

As for the reviewer who essentially accuses Liftin of Protestantizing the Fathers, nothing could be further from the truth. He gives credit to a Roman Catholic--Wilken--in the prefatory material, for helping him see the universal nature of the Church Fathers (what he constantly refers to as "little-c catholics"), instead of a group belonging only to one tradition. There are points of convergence and divergence between the Patristic theologians and all three of the Christian theological streams (Roman, Eastern and Protestant).

Thank you, Bryan Liftin, for a good book on a great subject. I hope many more Protestants will learn to enjoy the Early Church Fathers.

Dr. Litfin's "Getting to Know the Church Fathers" is an excellent introductory text that fulfills exactly what the title proclaims. Litfin provides a intriguing historical accounts of men who protected the early Christian church. He accurately describes the church Fathers without making them righteous as he digs out both their saintly and sinful deeds.

Dr. Litfin teaches an introductory class titled Christianity and Western Culture at Moody Bible Institute that covers the majority of the content of his book. This past semester I had the privilege of being in this class. As I read "Getting to Know the Church Fathers" I felt as if I was once again in the same room with Dr. Litfin as he teaches not from a heady pious standpoint, but from a humble, learning stance. His goal is not to overwhelm or guilt but to reveal those who have gone before us, who have paved the way, and to call us to the same standard.

If you cannot take Christianity and Western Culture read this book.

One of those books you don't want to put down. An easy read, very informative. I'm now looking for more books like it.

I'm green with envy, wondering where Litfin was when I was in school. For me and my college peers the Patristic Period and Early Church Fathers were presented almost as fictional characters "defending the faith" during times of great theological upheaval. Guys like Tertullian, Athanasius, and Augustine, were aloof eccentrics and entirely plagued within and without with theological conflicts, of which they all eventually strayed, hence the reason I and my peers were now Protestant. Fortunately for me, I stumbled upon Litfin's work, who--and very accurately and concisely I might add--helped me to discover the true identity of these wonderful pastors. His work helped me to realize these guys were in fact, just like me. In that, they too wrestled personally within to find their true identity in Christ and God's will for their life while also wrestling without to convince a lost and dying world of their most dire condition and eternal fate. That, holiness and devotion to God's word are the most effective weapons pastors must use to impact their world for Christ.

I am still reading Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction and am finding it helpful as I develop and organize my understanding of some of early Christendom's well known personalities. Each biographical sketch is kept to a chapter with an excerpt from that person's own words following. The book is highly readable - not at all like a textbook.

Americans are notoriously ignorant of the past, and American Christians are no exception. What little people do claim to know are often distortions of the past and are generally two-dimensional. Church history, moreover, can actually be discouraging to Evangelicals who might at best peer through the scratched lens of fragmented history and see only abusive popes, intrigue, politics, and schism.

Yet Dr. Litfin has built a bridge over that admittedly troubled Church history to bring out the humanity of those brave believers of the nascent Church. No longer should we be content to choose between stale academic treatments or pithy portraits produced by self-serving and ignorant authors. Dr. Litfin introduces the reader to real people with real struggles while simultaneously educating the Evangelical enthusiast as to the larger canvas of the impact these key individuals had on the development of Christianity. Moreover, reading this with an open mind will help Evangelicals work through the tension of a messy Church history that nevertheless brought out courage and faithfulness of men and women during times of great challenge to Christianity's very survival. What a message of hope for us in our day!

As other reviewers note, the language is accessible and fresh, though one should not dismiss its historical depth; on the contrary, the author displays a persistent commitment to authenticity and accuracy. The professional and layman would do well to add this to their personal library.