The Fathers of the Church have been a vital source of wisdom and inspiration for countless saints, popes, peasants, and converts throughout the history of the Church. In this powerful one-volume library, Father Willis presents more than 250 selected doctrinal topics in an exhaustive selection of writings from the major sources of the Fathers. He lets the Fathers speak for themselves on a wide variety of spiritual themes.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
Good doctrinal reference:
This is a wonderful way to obtain an overview of the teachings of the early church fathers. The book arranges short excerpts from the fathers in a topical way to quickly find quotes concerning those topics. There is very little commentary so the fathers are left to speak for themselves. But, the lack of commentary did make me wish there was at least some biographical context for each of the fathers in order to place the writings in the context of time. Many doctrines developed or were inferred with time so... more info
Strengthen Your Faith:
This particular book about the Church Fathers serves to enhance and strengthen one's understanding of the faith. A truly informative and inspirational read.
Back to the Future:
With the growing awareness among Protestants of the writings of early Christians, there is also a bewilderment among many as to the claims various Christians make about these writings. Exactly what did they teach anyway? John R. Willis gives a very useful tool for the beginner in arranging quotes from the Church Fathers on various questions relating to doctrine and practice in the early Church. To his credit, he does not try to "spin" the material. Although as a Catholic, he is interested in support... more info
Very good resource:
This is a great resource for any serious student of the Scriptures. It is easy to use and organized by doctrine. If you want to see what the fathers said about all the Christian doctrines then this book is for you. Some have written that it was biased towards Romanism. I found that it is not, and the author makes that point in the introduction. For example, when it comes to purgatory, he merely quotes the fathers on it. He does not add any of his own Roman views on this but merely quotes what was written.... more info
