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I would honestly have to say those plus Cyril of Alexandria would constitute my favorite Church Fathers.Gregory of Nazianzus or Maximus the Confessor
Augustine is the closet to the Reformed. The Eastern Fathers more or less champion free will to a man.
Such is why I've found Cunningham's assessment of the Fathers and their use to be most instructive.The biggest danger in interpreting the church fathers is the word = concept fallacy. That's when you see a word like "grace" or a phrase like "God chose" and think they meant exactly what John Owen meant. That's to ignore the entire context and philosophical background in which they said those things.
You will find phrases like "faith alone" in some of the post-apostolic fathers. Don't read too much into it. Their writings are so scanty that it really doesn't prove anything, and faith alone only works if we can prove that they are using it in an instrumental causal sense, but that's hard to prove because, as already mentioned, their writings are so scanty.
Reading Gregory of Nazianzus' Five Theological Orations was one of the things that first got me excited about the study of the church fathers.
The top five are as follows:
1. Augustine
2. Augustine
3. Augustine
4. Augustine
5. Augustine
Hi! Just curious who would you say is your favorite church father to read? Who would you say is closest in a reformed view of soteriology?
I am looking to dig into Tertullian here in the near future.
For His Glory-
Matthew
Yeah I heard Moses did a really great write up on this. It’s the first of a five volume set (of a larger set with a total of 66 volumes). It’s really inspired stuff.Father Abraham. He had many sons.
Yeah I heard Moses did a really great write up on this. It’s the first of a five volume set (of a larger set with a total of 66 volumes). It’s really inspired stuff.
Best place to start is Basil's On the Holy Spirit. It's short and Basil was a classically trained writer. He knew how to communicate power in a simple way. It also teaches you key Patristic concepts (like the monarchia of the Father) and trains you to think in a proper Trinitarian grammar.
The best has yet to come. I heard it’s going to be glorious.Good to know. Is this series done? I get really annoyed when I catch up to the author.