What this is about

Many people ask me what the early church taught about various topics, so this is a blog where I will regularly post sections of their material, with questions to consider about what they wrote. It is basically material from a course I prepared for Tabor College several years ago.
Each post will have links to the relevant texts and wiki, and relevant questions to consider. Warning- some of this may upset your settled theology.

Topics and church fathers will include:

The Didache: A Jewish-Christian understanding of salvation

Martyrdom and holiness in Ignatius and Polycarp

Eucharist and bishop in Ignatius

Philosophy as preparation for the gospel in Clement of Alexandria

Poetic imagery of salvation in Ephraim the Syrian

Prayer and spiritual warfare in Athanasius' biography of Anthony

Creation, Fall, Incarnation, and Re-creation in Athanasius

Salvation history- two views: Augustine and Basil

The Holy Spirit in Basil

Mercy and social justice in John Chrysostom

Pastoral care and the church in Gregory Nazianzus

Simplicity, prayer, spiritual struggle in the Egyptian desert fathers

The psychology of healing in the Ascetic Discourses of Isaac of Nineveh

Jesus as Wisdom and Word of God in Philo, Athenagoras, Melito of Sardis etc.

The “holy man” and veneration of the saints in Ambrose, Jerome etc.

Aphrahat and ascetic effort

Ps Macarius and joy, spiritual growth etc

Also Hilary, Gregory Nyssa etc…