Product Description

A classic resource for the scholar, student, or minister, the thirty-eight volume Early Church Fathers, including the Ante-Nicene Fathers, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First and Second Series, is now available with a new look and an added annotated index of the authors and works (bound with volume 10 of the Ante-Nicene Fathers and available only in the Hendrickson edition). An invaluable primary resource, each of the three sets features introductions, helpful notes, references to Scripture citations, and indices of key persons, places, and theological issues. From the Apostolic Fathers to the Seven Ecumenical Councils, from the apocryphal gospels to the Arian controversy, this work is one of the most complete collections of the writing in the Christian churchÂ's first 800 years available today.

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Product Details

Publisher	Hendrickson Publishers
ISBN	1565630815
Format	Hardcover
Creator	Alexander Roberts James Donaldson Philip Schaff Henry Wace
EAN	9781565630819
Label	Hendrickson Publishers
Edition	annotated edition
Dewey Decimal Number	270
Number Of Items	38
Studio	Hendrickson Publishers
Number Of Pages	22896
Title	The Early Church Fathers (38 Vols.)
Publication Date	1994-06-01
Manufacturer	Hendrickson Publishers

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Customer Reviews

The Best collection of Christianity available in one package

Review by MikeJ, 2008-04-09

This is the only collection of the ECF that you can get for this price. Even though there are protestant footnotes and as that other poster said "damage control"(and the footnotes can be ignored if you want) , it still can't be beat sold in this beautiful collection for this wonderful price. The weath of information is unbeatable and is probably the most important thing to buy for Catholic Study other than the Bible. It has all of St. Augustines books like his confessions, city of God, his doctrinal works, etc. It just can't be beat and is much better than buying one book at a time and pay a boatload. Why buy the single books when you can get it all in one package here?

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A perfect idea gone horribly wrong.

Review by A Regular Joe, 2007-06-24

This 38 volume set is a treasure chest of the writings of the early fathers of the Catholic Church (whatever your theological position may be about the word Catholic, there simply is no doubt that the church of these fathers was but "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic".)

What we needed is a set that did not try to prove that these Fathers of the Church were Protestants. They are not. We would need even less a set that would try to prove that they are 100% "Roman Catholic" in their thinking. They were not this either. It is the task of the exegete, bible student, and scholar to decide this by looking at these primary sources for themselves. We did not need the editors to tell us what the texts said. Due to this clear flaw in the notes, the texts themselves become suspect, and extra scrutiny must be used to ensure we are getting a faithful translation of the text. While this set is a "cheap" way to get the works of the fathers, the newer Newman Press texts are much better, based on better manuscripts, but also much more expensive. The volumes here have its merits, and it would be well worth anyone interested in what these Christians had to say to own them no matter what their theological leanings, but we must keep a careful eye on what is being said in the text.

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Necessary Reading for Every Christian

Review by Daniel Rivera, 2002-10-27

The study of ecclesiastical history and the writings of the Saints are a necessity for a proper appreciation of Scripture and its interpretation. Philip Schaff's Church History is one of the few complete ecclesiastical history collections available. There are more modern and reliable translations of the ancient Greek and Latin texts (Ancient Christian Writers and Fathers of the Church Series), which abstain from sectarianism; unfortunately, the publishers have not yet gathered these works into a single collection. Despite the shortcomings of this edition, Philip Schaff's Church History is notable, if only for its presentation of the Reformed perspective on the development of ecclesiastic doctrine.

Schaff was guided by a number of principles in his History. He was convinced, for example, that other church histories conformed to a "dry, lifeless style" that failed to probe the "main thing in history, the ideas which rule it and reveal themselves in the process." Most church histories -he believed- failed to foster a sense organic development, leaving students unable to understand their movement's place in the overall history of the church.

Following philosopher G.W.F. Hegel, who posited that cycles of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis raise what is preserved to a higher level, Schaff maintained: "spiritual growth is likewise a process of annihilation, preservation, and exaltation." An example of this process in Christian thought and practice was -according to Schaff- the emergence of the Protestant Reformation out of the medieval Catholic Church. "The practical piety and morality of Roman Catholicism," said Schaff, "is characteristically legal, punctilious, un-free and anxious; but distinguished also for great sacrifices, the virtue of obedience, and full consecration to the Church." The Protestant Reformation brought a needed corrective through a faith that "is evangelically free, cheerful and joyous in the possession of justification by grace."

In effect Schaff presents Protestantism as the heir of catholicity at the expense of the Roman See (his description of "the Papists" is outrageous), liberating doctrine from the "constraints" of ecclesial authority. Yet he conveniently minimizes the shortcomings of Protestantism, namely its fractious nature and the replacement of Apostolic Tradition with the tradition of subjective interpretation of Scripture. Fortunately he recognized the need for union, envisioning the emergence of a synthetic "evangelical-catholic" Christianity in the future.

Schaff utilizes heavy editorializing to present the writings of the Church Fathers as representing his viewpoint; this unfairly forces the reader to accept his overbearing perspective at the expense of the Church Fathers. If you are approaching this work from a non-Protestant background, you might find it necessary to skip the introductions and the footnotes. Despite the sectarian presentation of Church history, I recommend this work, as it makes the works of the Apostolic Fathers accessible at a reasonable price.

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A Treasure-Trove of Early Christian Writings"

Review by Johannes Platonicus, 2002-04-22

In this series an indescribable wealth of primary sources will be found, which consists of apologetic, theological, philosophical, exegetic, ethical, dogmatic, and historical writings. Many documents and decrees, early church liturgies and hymns, along with an abundance of letters and tracts from the most illustrious and prolific authors of our Christian past are preserved here as well in a complete and clear turn of the century English prose translation. Moreover, this 38 volume set includes the principle writers of the Church from St Clement of Rome, a contemporary of St Paul, to St John Damascene, the last of the Eastern fathers who wrote during the 8th century AD. In the West, Pope Gregory the Great's works are the last included in this series, since the end of his pontificate essentially marks the West's shift from the world of late antiquity into the dawn of the Dark Ages. Arguably, some works by Latin authors like St Benedict, Isidore of Seville, Prudentius, Sidonius, and Rufinus of Aquiliea should have joined the ranks with other Western fathers, since the editors saw it necessary to place in the works of John Damascene, who wrote well over a century later than Isidore, the latest of the authors listed above. However, the editors judgement to place St Gregory the Great as the last of the Western fathers may be vindicated, although to leave authors like Prudentius, Rufinus, Sidonius, and Benedict out, who all wrote and thrived before Gregory's birth, may be open for scrutiny. Also, these works are all translated and edited by Protestant scholars and divines, so the footnotes, prefaces, and profiles of these Church Fathers and their works tend to be shrouded with Protestant leanings. Although, Catholics--and anyone for that matter--will nevertheless find this series to be the most complete and reliable source of early Christian writings. The Catholic University of America currently has many of the Church Fathers writings available, which are definitely worth checking out as well.

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Recommended even though newer collections are available

Review by Anonymous, 2002-03-23

...This is an excellent resource, no two ways about it. I find myself using it all the time, looking up things I find quoted in books, tracts, etc. I found it very convienent to be able to get the whole set at once, and I might add, for a very good price ....

Just a caveat: this is not, and does not advertize itself as a complete compendium of the writings of the authors represented in this set. For instance, Origen, Jerome and Athanasius are given particularly brief treatments, as are most of the writers presented in volumes 25-38.

... This is a great resource, but some 120 years after initial publication, the body of manuscripts and scholarship used in translation has been improved upon. This cannot be looked upon as an intrisic weakness in this series, but rather an effect of aging which falls on all older works which rely on a body of historical writings which are under constant study.

Regarding the introduction essays, I don't have a huge problem with them. Not all of them are openly polemical. This was compiled by Protestants, so one should not be surprised to find pro-Protestant essays therein. One cannot possibly confuse these with the writings of the Fathers themselves, and can be easily skipped.

However, I did pick up a fair amount of attempted "damage control" in the footnotes, i.e. the footnote on Irenaeus' Against Heresies 3:3:2. Other examples could be cited.

In any case, I am not citing these things to "unpromote" the work, but simply discussing the points .... I am aware that there are newer translations of these writings available, but are only available piecework and for much more money.

This is indeed a great place to start, but people wanting more complete writings and/or more current scholarship might want to consider the Ancient Christian Writers series.

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