[PayNoAttentionManBehindCurtain]

The Early Fathers

Mary Ann Collins

(A Former Catholic Nun)

Catholic apologists often quote the "Early Fathers" in support of Catholic doctrines, the papacy, and other Catholic claims. Who were these people?

There were many early Christian leaders, including priests, bishops, and scholars. There were a lot of these men, and they had a wide variety of opinions on religious matters. Their theological differences were as widely varied as those of theologians from different denominations are today.

Malachi Martin was a Catholic priest, an eminent theologian, and a professor at the Vatican's Pontifical Institute. His book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church" describes the wide variety of beliefs of the Early Fathers (pages 11-28).

Because of this wide variety of beliefs, one person can find some Early Fathers to support one position, and another person can find other Early Fathers to support the opposite position.

But it's not a level playing field. Among all of those early Christian leaders, who decided which ones qualified to be called Early Fathers? The Catholic Church. Who decided which works should be copied and passed on to posterity? Copying was a slow, tedious job before the invention of the printing press. Who decided which writings were important enough to copy? The Catholic Church.

BigMack

[IMRight]

Who decided which writings were important enough to copy? The Catholic Church.

Thank you for finally admitting this. :)

[Brian Kopp DPM]

sounds like a regular conspiracy...till you realize that early Christians and Catholics are synonymous. There were not other early Christians, except heretics, such as those who rejected the divinity of Christ or His virgin birth, or one of the other central tenets of the 5 fundamentals of Christianity.

[OLD REGGIE]

But it's not a level playing field. Among all of those early Christian leaders, who decided which ones qualified to be called Early Fathers? The Catholic Church. Who decided which works should be copied and passed on to posterity? Copying was a slow, tedious job before the invention of the printing press. Who decided which writings were important enough to copy? The Catholic Church.

Most of the writings of the Church Fathers are in the public domain. What our RCC friends do is just pick and choose which of these writings are "good" and which are just baloney. How many times have you heard "it is not official" when a quote from Augustine and/or any other Church Father is in opposition to current RCC teaching? This is where idea for the cafetaria salad bar began.