Church Fathers
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
Illustration: Triumph of Christianity (detail) by Tommaso Laureti (1530-1602.)
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The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, or Fathers of the Church are the early and influential theologians and writers in the Christian Church, particularly those of the first five centuries of Christian history. The term is used of writers and teachers of the Church, not necessarily saints. Teachers particularly are also known as doctors of the Church, although Athanasius called them men of little intellect.
Patristics
The study of the Church Fathers is known as patristics.
Works of fathers in early Christianity, prior to Nicene Christianity, were translated into English in a 19th-century collection Ante-Nicene Fathers. Those of the First Council of Nicaea and continuing through the Second Council of Nicea (787) are collected in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
See also
- Ante-Nicene Fathers
- Apostolic Fathers
- Cappadocian Fathers
- Desert Fathers
- Doctors of the Church
- List of early Christian writers
- Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
- Patristics
- Patrologia Graeca
- Patrologia Latina
- Patrologia Orientalis
- Three Holy Hierarchs
- Sacred Tradition
- Doctors of the Church
- List of Church Fathers
- Texts on lust by the early Church Fathers Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome and Clairvaux
