The third episode of The Christian Humanist Podcast should be up on iTunes shortly. In the meantime, you can download it here (not at the time I'm writing, but soon). In this episode, we discuss the Church Fathers and our relationship with them today. Listen as I display my utter ignorance of Church history! Listen as David and Nathan put me to shame! Just listen.Show Notes
General Introduction
- Who are the Church Fathers?
- Are all Fathers saints?
Our Own Experiences with the Patristics
- And how do we feel today?
- Reformers and Patristics
- The hazy lines between Apostles and Fathers
The Fathers' Relationship with the Classics
- Their concern with philosophers
- Augustine's City of God
- Tertullian's denunciation of Christian humanism
The Church Fathers in Our Own Disciplines
- John Updike's Roger's Version
- The Wife of Bath objects!
- The Patristics up for grabs in the Renaissance
The Elephant in the Room
- Are we incorrect in our interpretations of the Bible when they differ from the Patristics'?
- The tyranny of the democracy of the dead
- C.S. Lewis suggests a via media
- The big Orthodox question
- What does "unanimous consent" even mean?
- Apostolic succession or unanimity of teaching?
Are the Patristics Fathers to Protestants, Too?
- Too influential to ignore
- Don't skip fifteen centuries of theology
- The Christian Classics Ethereal Library
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Augustine. City of God. Trans. Henry Bettenson. New York: Penguin, 2003.
Calvin, John. The Institutes of the Christian Religion. Trans. Ford Lewis Battles. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Ed. V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson. New York: Norton, 2005.
Chesterton, G.K. The Everlasting Man. Ft. Collins, Co.: Ignatius, 1993.
Fathers of the Church. The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. Charlotte, N.C.: TAN, 2009.
Justin Martyr. The Writings of Justin Martyr. Ed. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Berkeley, Ca.: Apocryphile, 2007.
Lewis, C.S. God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1994.
Luther, Martin. The Bondage of the Will. New York: General Books LLC, 2009.
McGrath, Alistair. Christianity's Dangerous Idea. New York: HarperOne, 2008.
Milton, John. "The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce." The Major Works. Ed. Stephen Orgel and Jonathan Goldberg. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. 182-226.
Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper and Row, 1956.
Norris, Frederick W. Christianity: A Short Global History. Oxford: Oneworld, 2002.
Tertullian. On Idolatry. Whitefish, Mont.: Kessinger, 2004.
Updike, John. Roger's Version. New York: Knopf, 1996.
LINKS
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
The Catholic Encyclopedia: Fathers of the Church
