Patristics

Recently I was invited to contribute my thoughts on what Christians today can learn from patristic theology for a new book entitled The Contemporary Church and the Early Church edited by Paul Hartog and published by Wipf and Stock.

My chapter, “Learning from Patristic Christology,” focuses on early Christianity’s articulation of the doctrine of the Son’s eternal generation. From major theologians, creedal statements, and conciliar decisions it shows that the Son as “eternally begotten of the Father” was an essential component of the faith of our fathers. It encourages contemporary Christians to preserve this divine truth revealed in Scripture and explicated by the fathers.

I think that those interested in early Christianity and historical theology will find it informative and engaging. I encourage peers to review it in their periodicals, and professors to examine it for possible use in their courses. For more information or to purchase a copy of The Contemporary Church and the Early Church, visit the publisher’s site.

All the best,
Frank

For some reason the translators of the Ante-Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series overlooked many biblical commentaries of the early church. However, patristic scholars over the past few decades have started to fill this gap. A first ever English translation of Jerome’s (d. 420) Commentary on Matthew has recently been published by The Catholic University of America Press in their Fathers of the Church series. If you want to see how a very early commentator of the church interpreted the Gospel of Matthew, this is a great addition for your library. Since I translated many of Jerome’s comments on Matthew 24 in The Early Church and the End of the World, I am curious to see how our translations compare.