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June 30, 2019The Early Church Fathers are characterized by holiness, orthodoxy, antiquity and, most significantly, Church approval. This book covers from St. Clement through St. John Damascene. How did we get to the Nicene Creed? How did the early Church explain the Real Presence? What did the Church Father's fight over and agree upon? In short, a good book about how the sausage is made.
One of the first examples of the exercise of authority by the Church in Rome is St. Clement's Letter to the Corinthians. As always, the Corinthians are a rambunctious bunch. The younger members of the Church pulled a coup against the older members. The Church never changes, just the players. Dr. Marcellino writes:
Dr. Ambrosio provides good footnotes back to the original sources, most of which are available online. Peering back to the beginning is looking back at our Catholic ancestors. Soon to be saint, John Henry Cardinal Newman said that a protestant could not be too careful of her reading if she hoped to remain protestant. The early Church fathers are unabashedly Catholic. An interesting, well-written and enjoyable read. Fr. John
The main reason for the letter was to let the Corinthian church know in no uncertain terms that the leadership coup that occurred was entirely illegitimate. In the letter, Clement insisted that the apostles had intended an orderly succession of authority in the Church. The apostles themselves, he stated, had commissioned leaders to shepherd shepherd the Corinthian church and these elders and bishops commissioned others to succeed them in turn. This process of succession from the apostles was to be preserved unbroken. This provides us with the earliest written references to the idea of apostolic succession. D'Ambrosio, Marcellino. When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers (pp. 6-7). Franciscan Media. Kindle Edition.
