By John Randolph Willis
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48 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
What Did the Early Christians Believe?,
This excellent book is the next best thing to time travel. Willis studied the writings of the first Christians and records for us verbatim what these people actually believed and taught about Christianity. There is no cant or spin in this book; it is simply a categorical arrangement of the actual words of the early Christian fathers. Readers can judge for themselves what constitutes authentic Christian belief after studying what our ancestors in faith believed. Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox alike will find this book a valuable reference tool. It is both a concise one volume reseource for the ordinary reader and a springboard for those wanting to do in-depth patristics research.  Comment (1) | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Back to the Future,
To his credit, he does not try to "spin" the material. Although as a Catholic, he is interested in support for the Roman position, he merely gives the Roman position and then lists quotes he believes support that view. The quotes are not mere sentences but more extensive passages so that we have some idea of context. For Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican Christians, there is little there that would come as a shock. The early Christians worshipped liturgically with the Eucharist as the center of their Christian life and a belief in some form of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. The office of bishops in Apostolic succession was universal and there was devotion to Mary and other faithful departed. It all sounds rather waht we think of as "Catholic." As for the things that would separate Catholics from other traditionally minded Christians (e.g., the papacy, certain Marian beliefs), we may question whether the evidence is universal or whether the quotes even support what Willis contends. In the earlier case, there is a marked reliance on Latin fathers who developed a theology divergent with the East and in the later case there are quotes that do not seem to prove what Willis wishes them to prove. A case in point are the quotes used to support the "Holy Spirit procedes from the Father and the Son." The phrase "and the Son" was added to the Creed by the West but the quotes given seem to support the earlier view still held by the Orthodox Church. Still, the case can be made that there was some level of support for the more unique Roman contentions even if it was primarily in the West. It must also be pointed out that as an apologetic tool, Willis is not primarily focused on differences between Catholics and Orthodox or even Catholics and Anglicans. The main divide here is between Catholics and Evangelical Protestants. From that perspective, there can be little doubt the Church of the patrisitic period was far closer in faith and practice to Rome than modern Evanglical Protestantism even if the match is not perfect. As many Evangelicals are looking back to the early centuries of Christianity for a way out of the banality that affects much of their movement, there is a question as to where that path will lead. Willis in The Teachings of the Church Fathers attempts to frame patristic quotations to make a case for that future leading to Rome. Whether he has been entirely successful or not, he has supplied an indispensible reference tool for further study. Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Good doctrinal reference,
In the end, this will be a valuable ready reference to the fathers. But I think I will still cling more tightly to the doctrinal index in Jurgens' Faith of the Early Fathers: Three-Volume Set as my favored resource. It is less handy to flip back and forth through the 3 volumes but the sense of context and continuity of history is more fulfilling in most cases. As an easy quick reference, Willis' work is still of great value to supplement your early fathers library or as an introduction to a given topic. But it cannot take the place of more rounded works such as Jurgens'. Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you?
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