Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
I don't have them, but I have seen them. Many years ago a pastor I knew was collecting them. It's a textually based synopsis, so it may not be as informative about the views of a given theologian, given that you are seeing selections rather than connected works. But no doubt it will cause you to consider patterns of interpretation that you wouldn't ordinarily come across.
That probably depends on whether you will get use out of them worth $24.50. I wouldn't get them like that: you can access a 38-volume set of patristic writings online at CCEL, and you can read Ambrose, Augustine, and Chrysostom there: it includes much of Augustine's work that is explanatory of Scripture, and that is mostly what you find in Chrysostom: and of course you can get Jerome there as well. And you can buy Theodoret's volumes from Amazon. But if what you are looking for is to read collections of patristic statements on various portions of Scripture, then this is the set for you.
I enjoyed that one, but not, I think, as much as On Christian Teaching.
I enjoyed that one, but not, I think, as much as On Christian Teaching.
I enjoyed that one, but not, I think, as much as On Christian Teaching.
Augustine's treatise on grace & free-will was it for me. Once I read that I was sealed in the doctrine of Grace. Most people do not understand that Calvin was an Augustinian, and they bash what should be called Augustinianism Calvinism. I think it is just that the unregenerated man hates the idea of Grace.
I enjoyed that one, but not, I think, as much as On Christian Teaching.
I'll have to read that one this weekend while I am confined to a car for 4 days.
I have On Christian Doctrine by Saint Augustine is this the same I think it is.
Augustine's treatise on grace & free-will was it for me. Once I read that I was sealed in the doctrine of Grace. Most people do not understand that Calvin was an Augustinian, and they bash what should be called Augustinianism Calvinism. I think it is jus t that the unregenerated man hates the idea of Grace.
Yes, it's the same one. It's nice to hear about someone who went straight to Augustine - I think a lot of us only get to him after a long while.
The ACC series, which I've used from time to time, seems mostly a work of quotations. You may be able to draw out some really good nuggets; you may even be led to some very useful material. On the whole, though, I'm not sure it's really that useful for understanding Scripture or the Fathers better. The format means that all the statements lack context, and I think most people, unless they are already familiar with the Fathers, will end up reading into the quotes what they think they should mean, rather than what they do.
Since I'm a historian, I look at them from time to time, but I don't think they're a must-buy for a pastor or someone preparing sermons.
For some instant disappointment, check his remarks on 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17. There are a few good phrases in that section, but also some depressing mistakes.For indeed we are not so much in love with money, as is He with our salvation. Wherefore it was not money, but His own Blood that He gave as bail for us. And for this cause He would not have the heart to give them up, for whom He had laid down so great a price. See too how he shows that His power also is unspeakable. For he says, “to this end He both died and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living.” And above he said, “for whether we live or die, we are His.” See what a wide extended Mastery! see what unconquerable might! see what exact providence over us!
I put mine away in a box some where
I would love to collect them myself but I just don't have room. As soon as the technology advances on the e-readers I'll be going that route.
Chrysostom says many good things and is sometimes brilliant: he's also useful for seeing how a native Greek-speaker took Paul's Greek. But at the same time there is much that is disappointing in his work.
Here is one of the good things he said, on Romans:
For some instant disappointment, check his remarks on 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17. There are a few good phrases in that section, but also some depressing mistakes.For indeed we are not so much in love with money, as is He with our salvation. Wherefore it was not money, but His own Blood that He gave as bail for us. And for this cause He would not have the heart to give them up, for whom He had laid down so great a price. See too how he shows that His power also is unspeakable. For he says, “to this end He both died and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and the living.” And above he said, “for whether we live or die, we are His.” See what a wide extended Mastery! see what unconquerable might! see what exact providence over us!