Customer Reviews

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Second Series, 14 Volumes

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The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (NPNF) series has long been something of a standard reference work for those interested in the church fathers. The series was begun initially by men of the Oxford Movement in the 19th century in Britain, i.e., Anglicans seeking to revive the church fathers for their day and age in the Church of England. That would explain the "thees" and "thous." Seeking to discover the mind of the fathers the men of the Oxford Movement translated primarily fathers of the late fourth and early fifth centuries. That explains the emphasis on Augustine and Chrysostom in the first series of the NPNF series. Being Anglicans seeking to remain Anglican the series offers a host of anti-Catholic commentary that will offend almost every sensible Roman Catholic, but the real service of these translations is not the anti-Roman polemic, but the translations themselves and the renewed interest in the church fathers that we now see once again in our own day. (The Ante-Nicene Fathers series had to be completed by another group since the Oxford men were not as preoccupied with the earliest of the fathers as they sought to ascertain and formulate what they believed to be a patristic consensus of the first five centuries.)

The series is by no means complete, neither for Augustine nor Chrysostom, and much less for other significant church fathers such as Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil the Great, Jerome or Cyril of Alexandria among others. Still, the price alone makes this series worth having, though it needs to be supplemented by works found in other patristic series such as The Fathers of the Church series produced by Catholic University of America Press, and the more recent and much more readable translations of St. Augustine produced by New City Press.

Please know these volumes are available on CD ROM and individually through Kindle.

The writings of St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom are invaluable especially when wanting to study the foundations of the Latin West. (Of course with the exception of some of Augustine's seemingly pro-Reformation ideas.....)
This 14-volume set is excellent in providing a substantial amount of theological and spiritual prose. However, the commentaries by some of the books' editors seem to have an anti-Roman Catholic edge to them. (Especially the comments by Paul Schaff when referring to the "Popery and Romanism" of the Roman Catholic Church.) This I believe is in bad taste....even for an Anglican "scholar."