Getting To Know The Church Fathers Summary

Getting to Know the Church Fathers – An Evangelical Introduction

Litfin, Bryan M. Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Brazos Press, 2007. Bryan M. Litfin an associate professor of theology at Moody Bible Institute, wrote Getting to Know the Church Fathers. Bryan has great passion towards history and specifically the history of the church fathers, the one’s who were there in the beginning of Christianity and the one’s who sat and learned at the feet of the best; the apostles. Throughout his book, Bryan sheds light on the significance of church fathers and their roles throughout church history. He encourages his readers and reminds them the importance of the church fathers, and the importance to study the forerunners and protectors of the orthodoxy. This book is rich with history and contains ten chapters.
Bryan describes different individuals in each and every chapter. Therefore, it is easy to follow and understand. Chapter one is about Ignatius of Antioch. He was described as a shooting star. He was bright and then disappeared in the blaze of glory. Many letters were destroyed throughout time, but from the letters scholars found, Ignatius of Antioch was a very passionate pastor who had a strong desire to protect his people, and who has given his life away for the true faith in order for his people to have that true faith. Ignatius had many enemy attacks; most of them were from Gnostics and Jewish legalists. One of the primary roles of Ignatius was to preach the gospel of grace to the Judaizers (Jewish people living by the law as Christians). For, keeping the law in order for salvation was an abomination to the gospel of grace and rejection of the essence of the central point of Christianity, Jesus’ death. One of the statements Ignatius made was, “if we still live according to the Jewish law, we acknowledge that we have not received grace.” The Romans executed Ignatius of Antioch in 115 AD; it is believed that either he was killed because he became scapegoat for an earthquake or for simply carrying the name of Christ. Chapter two is about Justin Martyr. “Justin Martyr was a church father who performed the hard work of breaking trail for the future generations of Christians.” Justin was considered to be the first philosopher out of Christians. Justin made this path for Christian apologists of his time by intellectual reasoned defense of the faith. Justin was born in Samaria around the year AD 100. Before Justin came to know the true God, he studied philosophy, but eventually he grew disillusioned with stoicism and other philosophers because they could not answer him questions about God and seem to have no personal knowledge of God. The moment of change that took on Justin was when he was by a shore contemplating on Plato’s philosophy, when an elderly gentlemen came up to Justin and struck a philosophical conversation about how to find the true God. After having accomplished much in his life, such as one of his greatest works First Apology and Second Apology, he was martyred for his faith in God. Chapter three is about Irenaeus of Lyons. “Irenaeus lived in a strategic time, when false interpretations of Jesus were everywhere.” He was born around AD 130 and grew up at Smyrna, which is where Bishop Polycarp presided over the church. Irenaeus battled the Gnostics by writing Against Heresies for the church to have a strong foundation of belief and for the church not to walk astray by hearing the Gnostics and their false beliefs. Irenaeus also brought up the “Rule of Faith” , which is the apostolic creed, and it for Christians to interpret scriptures and identify the heresies. This Rule of Faith became a very important piece of theology, and it outlined the complete story of Christian redemption. Chapter four is about Tertullian. He is dated from AD 170 through AD 215. His best work is called Prescription Against Heretics. One of opponents Tertullian opposed and wrote five-volumes on was Marcion Against Marcion. Who was Marcion? In Rome, Polycarp once crossed paths with Marcion and called him, “the first born of Satan”. Marcion was a rich businessman who was excommunicated by the church for his own peculiar heresies. Tertullian played a vital role in the canonization process. As well as he focused on refuting the heretics who were trying to penetrate the church and its orthodoxy. Chapter five is about Perpetua. The year for Perpetua is AD 203. She was a very faithful and a persevering woman. Perpetua was a “newlywed when at age twenty – one, she was imprisoned in a Roman dungeon” for her faith. In that dungeon she has shown the priority of her life, she chose Christ over her infant son, her father, and family. Once, Perpetua asked God for a vision. In her vision “she saw a bronze ladder reaching into the sky.” This vision revealed that she will be martyred and that there is the awaiting glory for her with the Shepherd. Chapter six is about Origen.
The year for Origen of Alexandria is from AD 186 – AD 251. When Origen was a teenager, his father was beheaded for believing in Jesus. In the zeal and passion to follow his father and die as a teenager, he was willing to go to prison for the same reasons, however, his mother hid all his clothes and spared him from martyrdom as a teenager. “Origen is the greatest scholar of the early church.” In order to find Christ on every page of scriptures, he would interpret the Bible allegorically. His most famous work was the book he wrote called First Principles. The most important piece of information about Origen is that he was willing to do everything in order to please God. Chapter seven is about Athanasius. The year for Athanasius is from AD 299 - AD 373. “For several decades Athanasius was a lonely defender of the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity against the Arian view.” Athanasius is recognized as the man who was not afraid to stand up for his belief, which was the doctrine of Trinity. As well as, he had great understanding of the theology on the incarnation of Jesus
Christ. Chapter eight is about John Chrysostom. John was one of the greatest preachers. He gave powerful orated sermons throughout the Roman Empire. “His nickname means ‘Golden Mouth’, for indeed that is what he had.” John has practiced monasticism, and in the end of his life he “died in a place of lonely isolation.” Chapter nine is about Augustine. The restless wanderer is Augustine of Hippo. He was called the restless wanderer because he was searching for the theological concept. One of the famous sayings he said was, “Our heart is restless, until it rests in you.”