Patristics & Early Church

The Anglican Church has been called a “patristic church.” What does this mean? Its meaning reflects the Anglican understanding of how we do “Reformation.” For some Protestant churches reformation means re-inventing the Church according to their own Biblical understanding and interpretation, trying to recreate the church by studying the Bible alone. For Anglicans reformation literally means to return to the original form; in other words, the Church Jesus and His apostles planted. Fortunately, we are not left to our own guesswork. There are hundreds of pages of writings handed down from early Christians describing the Church, doctrine, Biblical interpretation, etc. Some of these writings have been determined to be forgeries and/or heretical (like the Gospel of Thomas) but most have long ago received the “stamp of approval” by Ecumenical Church Councils or by agreement and approval of many other Church fathers (the word Patristic has been defined as “Of or relating to the fathers of the early Christian church or their writings”). Within these early Fathers we can find broad agreement on certain topics that divide Christians today. For example, in the letters of Ignatius of Antioch, probably written before the end of the first century, already he is calling the communion service of the church “the Eucharist” and refers to it’s consecrated elements (bread and wine) as the “medicine of eternal life” pointing to a deeply sacramental understanding of that mystery. He already clearly teaches the three-fold nature of Chrisitan leadership, referring to a single bishop of a city or territory and presbyters who gather around the Bishop and deacons who serve the bishop and the people. He teaches that Jesus “hallowed the waters” by being baptized in them Himself and so, once again, strongly hints at the deeply sacramental nature of baptism. These teachings are found nearly universally in the writings of the rest of the church fathers for the next 400 years! So when we as Anglicans study the Bible and what it has to say about such things as communion, bishops, presbyters and deacons, and baptism, we do not have to try to understand these things without any frame of reference outside ourselves! We are not “making it up” as we go along, but rather we are reading the Holy Scriptures in the company of the Apostles themselves and in the company of those whom the apostles themselves taught.

What does this mean? Ignatius of Antioch, for example, was from the very church whose founding is mentioned in some detail in the book of Acts (chapters 6, 11, and 13) in which Sts.Peter and Paul taught and from which St. Paul was sent out on the first world mission trips. If Ignatius did not sit directly under the teaching of St. Paul, he certainly sat under the teaching of a man who did! Another early father, Irenaeus of Lyons, from whom also we learn a lot of early doctrine and Biblical interpretation, was a disciple of Polycarp in Ephesus who was a direct disciple of the apostle St. John the divine, writer of the gospel that bears his name. So these writers and their disciples form a direct, living link; a Holy Spirit anointed tradition of Biblical interpretation and ecclesiastical and theological understanding that came from the very mouths of the apostles of Jesus.

For this reason, Anglicans have always been deeply immersed in the writings of these fathers and built our understanding of the Church and the Scriptures based on their teachings. This is what makes us a “patristic” church. These fathers passed on a living tradition of how to be the church and how to understand the Holy Scriptures that we honor and respect. When and where we find them in substantial agreement, we feel that modern and late modern theologians and teachers must do the “heavy lifting” when they disagree with this substantial agreement of the fathers.

For this reason, these earliest fathers should be read and studied by all ordained people. In particular you should read the letters of Ignatius of Antioch (a readable copy found here) and a sample of the writings of Irenaeus (found here) and the Mystological Catechesis of Cyril of Jerusalem (found here).

Early Fathers particularly regarded by Anglican theologians:

Clement of Rome

Ignatius of Antioch

The Didache

Tertullian

Irenaeus of Lyons

Athanasius of Alexandria

Cyril of Jerusalem

Augustine

The Cappadocian Fathers (Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea)

Ambrose of Milan

St. Gregory the Great

A great Reformation claim for the Anglican Church being a patristic and truly “catholic” church:

The Apology by John Jewel [1]

Recommended Reading

Leo Donald Davis, The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787): Their History and Theology (Michael Glazier, 1983)

Resources

Ignatius of Antioch, Letters ([2])

Didache ([3])

Irenaeus of Lyons, On the Apostolic Preaching ([4])

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures ([5])

Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation ([6])

Augustine of Hippo, Confessions, Books 1-9 ([7]) and On the Trinity ([8])

Gregory Nazianzus, Theological Orations 27-31 ([9])

Cyril of Alexandria, On the Unity of Christ ([10])

Martyrdom of Perpetua ([11])

Gregory the Great, Pastoral Rule ([12])

John Chrysostom, On the Priesthood ([13])

Basil of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit ([14])

Canonical Areas

Church History/Anglican Church History

a. Patristics & Early Church b. Medieval & Reformation Church c. Modern Church