The Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction

Description

From the back cover: The Fathers of the Church presents the most important authors and works of the early history of Christian literature. Spanning the first seven hundred years of Christianity, this volume introduces writers such as Philo, Origen, Eusebius, Jerome, and Augustine, among many others. All of the authors are presented in their respective political, social, ecclesiastical, and cultural contexts, and their writings are organized in terms of bibliographies, editions, English translations, ancillary sources, and relevant literature. Hubertus Drobner brings patristics scholarship up to date in this valuable introduction. His work is sufficiently broad to be a useful summary of early Christian history and its expansive strokes of doctrinal debate and development. In addition, it provides a clear presentation of contemporary studies and views on these important writers and their works. Originally published in German as Lehrbuch der Patrologie, The Fathers of the Church offers English-speaking readers easy access to Drobner's traditional introduction to early Christian thought. Drobner enhanced the English translation, prepared by Siegfried Schatzmann, with new material throughout. The bibliographies were updated and expanded by the author and by William Harmless, SJ.