An introduction to patristics

http://www.monachos.net/content/patristics/patristictexts

"The patristic texts found in this area are published here in Monachos.net's own library, as part of our work to make the patristic corpus more readily available in a variety of means on-line. We also maintain an extensive listing of patristic texts available elsewhere; between the two, providing an extensive listing of patristic writings on the internet."


Written by M.C. Steenberg | 15 March 2001
The study of the Church Fathers is central to an understanding of and appreciation for the history and content of Orthodox Christianity. It is in these holy men and women that the Church has found her voice throughout the centuries, in these lives transformed and illumined that she has found her most poignant mouthpeaces. It was these that produced the Scriptures, the formulations of the Councils, and the sacred writings that continue to form the textual tradition of the Church.

Often, the writings of the Fathers can be complex, for much hearkens from an era different from our own. Context can seem distant, and the mire of words difficult sands through which one must sift. Yet the great quality of the writings of the Church Fathers is their transcendence of the human moment: their ability to speak to the very heart of man even centuries, perhaps millennia, after they were first written. It is the voice of the Holy Spirit of God that speaks through their words, and thus their message is eternal and ever applicable to the contemporary state of humanity.

It is the Fathers of the Church who have produced her great textual treasures: her Scripture, her hymnody, her theological apologetics, her histories. Thus a proper understanding of any of these elements of Orthodox life can only be obtained when approached with a Patristic sense of mind. We must not be isolationist in our understanding of the Church, thinking that only the here and now have relevance to the spiritual condition and guidance of the faithful. From the beginning of history, God has illumined the hearts and minds of His faithful, revealing to them the truths of His Kingdom, that they might go forth as lights into the world and proclaim Him to the generations. Their message has formed the great body of work known as the writings of the Church Fathers, and it speaks just as boldy to modern Orthodoxy as it did to the Orthodoxy of its own day.

There are two great 'temporal dangers' that present themselves to the student of patristics: first is the tendency to minimize the writings of the past as 'dated', out of touch, inspiring yet unfulfilled in the scope of the modern world. It is only the genuine, open study of the patristic writings than can properly alleviate this tendency and this flawed view of the Church's history, for only when the works of the Fathers are read and comprehended, will one come to see the great power with which they address the concerns of every age, including ours today.

The second danger is that of over-reminiscence, of seeing the purity of the Fathers' teachings as reflecting a golden age in the Church which has been lost and now sits absent in the modern day. It is true that much was and is to be praised of the eras in which given Fathers wrote, and yet much is also to be praised today. Though the multitude of our patristic literature hearkens from past generations and centuries, we must never forget that God continues to inspire prophets, Fathers and Mothers of the Church today, and that the patristic tradition is one of continuation—of the past and the present. The illumination of the past generations of the Church is a light that brightens the faithful in the present moment, now and into the future.

For the above reasons, the Patristics Area on Monachos.net is comprised both of patristic studies from the early, middle and later Church, but also of patristic studies in the present day: modern writers understood by the Church to be holy exemplars of Orthodox Christianity are included, though in number they are fewer than the collection produced through the past 2,000 years. A certain deference is given to some of the Fathers of the Early Church, in whose writings the Church found voice for her principal concerns of Trinitarian and Christological theology, as well as the Councils and their deliberations. But even as God continues to lead and guide the holy Church, the collection of patristic sources will be ever expanding throughout future generations.

This short welcome thus in mind, please enjoy the patristic resources offered on Monachos.net.