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I've got a 20th Century education and experience, lots of experience. The early Church Fathers had much less education and also much less worldly experience than almost any church goer today.No thanks, I not gonna automatically ask somebody to think for me. Especially when something as important as salvation at stake. I'm rejecting the 'the warning of St. Mark the Ascetic:'

I've got Bible Gateway on-line with a dozen commentaries. The ascetic has his modest stall, gruel and silent contemplation.

I've got a 20th Century education and experience, lots of experience. The early Church Fathers had much less education and also much less worldly experience than almost any church goer today.

Huh?

I've got a 20th Century education and experience, lots of experience. The early Church Fathers had much less education and also much less worldly experience than almost any church goer today.

Modern church goers (actually, most moderns) have a "worldly experience" which mostly came from fiction: movies, TV, and such. I would not be so quick to indulge the assumption that because we live in the neighborhood of hi-tech, that makes us superior.

I have a nightmare scenario of being haled to court after shooting a home intruder, being tried by a jury none of whom have ever seen a gun in real life, but have formed all their ideas about them from TV.

I could extrapolate this to other areas.

However, to deal with your main point, I think you would find yourself in agreement with St. Luke, who in the judgment of William Foxwell Albright was a first-class historian. After all, he commended the Berean Jews because they "checked up" on Paul. My point is to merely to note what they checked up WITH.