Posted on 01/08/2020 6:36:01 AM PST by Antoninus
These books contain important accounts and teachings from the early Church that every Christian should at least be familiar with. Unfortunately, many of these ancient resources are unknown to Christians today.
How many of these have you read? Take the challenge here: Fifty Works From the Early Church That Every Christian Should Read
If you have read less than 5 of these, you rank as a catechumen.
If you have read at least 5, you are a novice.
If you have read at least 10, you are an acolyte.
If you have read at least 20, you would qualify as a sub-deacon.
If you have read at least 30, you could be a deacon.
If you have read up to 40, you should consider the priesthood.
If you have read all 50, we may declare you a bishop by acclamation.
I enjoyed compiling this list because the process revealed how lacking I am in my own patristic reading. For every one of these works I've read, there seem to be a dozen more that I haven't!
1. The Douay-Rheims Bible (Various Catholic Translators)
2. The Shepherd of Hermas (F. Crombie, Translator)
3. Epistle of St. Barnabas (Apostolic Fathers, Vol. 2) (Bart D. Ehrman (Translator))
4. Epistles of Sts. Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch (James A. Kleist, Translator)
5. The Didache
6. Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians (Alexander Roberts (Translator))
7. Embassy for the Christians (Athenagoras)
8. The Writings of Saint Justin Martyr (Thomas B. Falls, Translator)
9. I Am a Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution From the Ancient Sources (Anthony Schiavo, ed.)
10. Apology and Spectacles (Tertullian)
11. The Paedagogus (Christ the Educator) (St. Clement of Alexandria)
12. Against Celsus (Origen)
13. Against Heresies (Irenaeus of Lyons)
14. The Complete Works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage (St. Cyprian)
15. Letters and Treatises (Dionysius of Alexandria)
16. The Octavius (Minucius Felix)
17. Refutation of All Heresies (Hippolytus of Rome)
18. Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine
19. The Divine Institutes (Lactantius)
20. Eusebius: History of the Church
21. Life of Saint Anthony of Egypt by Saint Athanasius
22. On the Incarnation (St. Athanasius)
23. Apocriticus (Macarius Magnes)
24. Lausaic History (Palladius of Aspuna)
25. The Desert Fathers (Sayings of the Early Christian Monks)
26. Life of Saint Martin of Tours (Sulpitius Severus)
27. The Pilgrimage of Egeria (Anne McGowan (Translator))
28. The Ecclesiastical History (Hermias Sozomen)
29. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates (Socrates Scholasticus)
30. On the Duties of the Clergy (St. Ambrose of Milan)
31. The Life of Saint Ambrose (Paulinus of Milan)
32. Select Orations (St. Gregory Nazianzen)
33. Exegetical Homilies on the Hexameron, Psalms, Etc. (Saint Basil the Great)
34. On the Soul and Resurrection (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
35. Saint Augustine--Confessions
36. Saint Augustine's City of God
37. On Marriage and Family Life (St. John Chyrsostom)
38. Psychomachia (Aurelius Prudentius Clemens)
39. The Life of Saint Augustine (Possidius of Calama)
40. The Confession & Letter to Coroticus (Saint Patrick)
41. Seven Books of History Against the Pagans (Orosius)
42. The Life of Saint Simeon Stylites (Frederick Lent, Translator) 43. On Illustrious Men (St. Jerome)
44. History of the Vandal Persecution (Victor of Vita)
45. The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) (Louise Ropes Loomis (Ed.))
46. Ecclesiastical History (Evagrius Scholasticus)
47. The Paschale Chronicle, AD 284-628 (Michael Whitby, Translator)
48. The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great
49. Lives of the Fathers (St. Gregory of Tours)
50. Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Saying those books were part of the "Greek Canon" - meaning the Septuagint - ignores that the Septuagint contains other books, too, and they weren't included. It's a bogus reason. Ironically, nowadays, the Roman Catholic church claims they don't even need to find their dogmas in the Bible - they can invent whatever they want. That certainly goes against the early church fathers beliefs, many who said that if they couldn't prove their doctrine by the Scriptures, they shouldn't accepted.
Further Gooder problems...
“along with gay rights advocates Robert Beckford and Paula Gooder.”
https://virtueonline.org/england-cms-sponsors-gay-evangelicalism
I dont know who any of these are: Robert Beckford, Paula Gooder or CMS. Does this have something to do with me?
Gooder is in charge of theology at the UK Bible Society you referenced.
1. I complimented a poster on demonstrating in every century protestant beliefs in the writings of the fathers
2. I said Catholics couldn't do that with half of what they practice and teach.
3. You posted a picture of a book and said they could.
4. I asked you then to start with the Assumption of Mary and demonstrate it in all 6 centuries in the writings of the Fathers
5. You posted just one quote from the 6th century and said it was easy.
6. I pointed out you missed 5 earlier centuries. NOW, you want to go back to the beginning and whine about it :-) You were unable to complete what you claimed.
I will take that as a clear admission that the Assumption of Mary was never taught in the first century.
It wasn't ever taught by an apostle.
Nor was half the stuff catholics teach or practice.
You might as well take it as seriously as some random post on the Internet claiming that George Washington ascended directly to Heaven on a horse made of cherries and wooden teeth.
Except it’s only been two centuries since Washington, not five.
Specifically,
Pauls letter to the Romans explains the gospel for the church at ROME. Faith in the sacrificial death of Christ as payment for our sin is SUFFICIENT.
Galatians teaches us not to add any human work to the FINISHED work of Christ.
Hebrews teaches there is only now the Melchizedek priesthood of Christ. He is our high priest. ...There is no valid RCC priesthood.
Hebrews teaches the sacrificial death of Christ was once for all.
......
The RCC only reads Scripture as a devotional exercise or for its liturgical function.
There is no didactic, corrective, exhortative, reproving aspect of Scripture for Rome, because she thinks she sits above the Word.
The RCC practices Sola Eccelesia which is a Latin term best translated as churcholatry.
For now,
Fishtank
...born and raised RCC, thirteen years Catholic education, two years CCD, and raised in a house with subscriptions to the National Catholic Register, the Wanderer, the Angelus magazine and Fidelity magazine. I was expected to be current on my readings in those publications while growing up.
....
By the way, after about four weeks in a Bible study at work, I got saved by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ when I was reading through Ephesians chapter 2.
God made me realize that He was right and that I was wrong.
All the Bible books I list at the beginning of this post are the lessons I learned from those books.
The RCC doesnt even understand and has never effectively implemented the Romans letter that Paul wrote to them.
If you read and understand the Bibles gospel of salvation, here is your rank:
A saint who is saved from sin by the sufficient grace of Christ, seated in the heaven lies, sealed by the Holy Spirit, with no future condemnation at all.
Ah, the Roman rooster, strutting around and claiming credit for making the sun rise.
Or in this case, claiming credit for the work that the Holy Spirit has done.
You have just proven fishtank’s point about Catholics believing in sola ecclesia.
I find that amusing.
No .
Paul wrote the letter because he was moved along by the Holy Spirit.
The RCC had nothing to do with that.
“if not for the “RCC”, you wouldn’t have St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans to read today.”
Oh, dear. Blasphemy.
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