# Church Fathers Reading list



## RamistThomist (Feb 25, 2018)

I've been meaning to post something like this for a while. My own take to reading the fathers was to dive right into the Schaff set. I don't recommend that, but it's better than nothing. I will start with a few intro texts to "get the feel," then I will move into primary sources, and then to leading secondary monographs.

A note on publishers. The Schaff set is universal. It's value is that everyone who reads Church Fathers have used the Schaff series, and usually reference primary sources accordingly. The down sides, though, are sometimes significant:
a) not the best font
b) double-columned.
c) older translation
d) the footnotes are usually distracting.

St Vladimir's Seminary Press has put together a fine Popular Patristics Paperback series. It is coming from an Orthodox perspective and it has titles we wouldn't recommend. However, the translations, except for the howler on Gregory of Nazianzus's _On God and Christ_, are quite fresh. The introductions are always top notch scholarship and occasionally world class. Further, they are relatively cheap.

_Intros and Surveys_.

Kelly, JND. Early Christian Doctrines. Probably the best all-around take on the fathers. Somewhat dated here and there, but certainly a standard (and be sure to pick up Kelly's bios on Jerome and Chrysostom).

Hall, Christopher. _Learning Theology with the Church Fathers_. It isn't earth-shaking, but it is a helpful read.

_Primary Sources
_
Basil of Caesarea (Basil the Great). Start here. Basil was first of all direct and practical. Start with his _On the Holy Spirit. _You should read him in the SVS series, although his Letters in the Schaff series are a gold mine.

Gregory of Nazianzus. _On God and Christ_. This is Gregory's response to the Eunomian crisis. Eunomius identified the divine essence with the Father's personal property of Unbegottenness. This is Gregory's response to it. Read it in the Schaff series. The SVS misses the mark by translating "monarchia" as "monotheism," which is specifically *not* what Gregory is saying.

-------------------. _Festal Orations_. These are some of the orations that aren't specifically focused on a doctrinal controversy. They are a feast of light and joy (and high theology). Read the SVS, though one can also find it in the Schaff series.

Grant. _Irenaeus of Lyons_. This is an introduction and survey of Ireaneus's thought. The problem with diving into Irenaeus is that the first two books are hard, because Gnosticism is weird (think of an ugly child between Feminism and New Age mysticism).

Maximus the Confessor, _On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ_. This is the best thing ever written on Christian cosmology. I've read it probably a dozen times. SVS series.

Bray, Gerald. _We Believe in One God_. I recommend everything in the Ancient Christian Doctrines series.

*Secondary Treatments
*
McGuckin, John. _Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy_. Excellent survey of Cyril’s thought and he makes the argument that Chalcedon, far from being a Western council, specifically made Cyril the standard for Christology. When the holy fathers cried out for the basis of the faith after Scripture, they said Leo's tome was true _because it represented the teachings of St Cyril_. He is sphragidis ton pateron.

———–. _St Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography_. Gregory told Julian the Apostate that Julian went insane because he summoned too many demons by playing with theurgy.

Daley, Brian. _Gregory of Nazianzus. _Similar in format to Grant's work on Irenaeus. I include it because it has some key orations that aren't found elsewhere.

Beeley, Christopher. _The Unity of Christ _and _In Your Light We See Light_.

Radde-Galwitz, Andrew. *Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Transformation of Divine Simplicity*. The best patristic book on divine simplicity. Actually, the best book on divine simplicity.

Barnes, Michel Rene. _Dunamis: The Concept of Power in Gregory of Nyssa_. Second best book on divine simplicity.

Anatolios, Khaled. _Athanasius: The Coherence of his Thought_. Probably the best text on working out the God-world relationship in Athanasius. He tries to rescue Athanasius from the charge of of “instrumentalizing Christ’s humanity,” but I am not sure he succeeds.

Gavrilyuk, Paul. _Suffering of the Impassible God: Dialectics of the Patristic Tradition_. Excellent discussions. 

Papadakis, Aristeides, _Crisis in Byzantium: The Filioque Crisis in the Patriarchate of the Gregory II of Cyprus (1283-1289) _, SVS. Partly explains why East and West never could reconcile.

Bradshaw, David, _Aristotle East and West: Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom._ Similar to above.

Reactions: Like 3 | Informative 5


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## ZackF (Feb 25, 2018)

Thank you for this especially the secondary source material as I've read little on the fathers that isn't explicitly RC. I remember that CS Lewis preface to Athanasius 'Incarnation' was inspiring.


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## RamistThomist (Feb 26, 2018)

ZackF said:


> Thank you for this especially the secondary source material as I've read little on the fathers that isn't explicitly RC. I remember that CS Lewis preface to Athanasius 'Incarnation' was inspiring.



It's good. I left it out because it is the one book of St Athanasius that everyone reads. His Contra Arians is much better, as he begins to work in metaphysics there.


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## Hamalas (Feb 26, 2018)

Thanks Jacob. Good stuff here.


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