Thinking about what to read: Church Fathers

A number of years ago I listened to a lecture by John Webster on the definition of Constructive Theology (this link is not to the lecture that I heard, it is a short interview with Webster). I was struck by his insistence that the task of Constructive Theology was to attend well to the Christian Tradition while simultaneously critiquing and emending historical doctrine. This task is not for the sake of critique, it is done because every generation must do theology for its day. Moreover, the theologian's task is to think hard about doctrine for the sake of the church (catholic, with a small 'c') because theology is prayer, for the church, by the church, and as the church. 

St. Basil of Ceasarea, St. John Chrysostom,
and St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen)

Another way of saying this would be to claim that the only way to formulate and think well about theology for today and for the future is to look to the past. Theology should never be done without a clear window on the doctrinal history of the church. God's work in the created order (God's economy of creation and reconciliation) is not a-historical. It didn't just begin yesterday, or with the birth of the United States, or at Azusa street, or in the theology of Karl Barth. God's creative and redeeming presence has been around a long time, and every age of the church has born witness to the redeeming work and presence of Christ in the Spirit. As Karl Barth argues:

“As regards theology…we cannot be in the Church without taking as much responsibility for the theology of the past as for the theology of our present. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Luther, Schleiermacher, and all the rest are not dead, but living. They still speak and demand a hearing as living voices, as surely as we know that they and we belong together in the Church…The theology of any period must be strong and free enough to give a calm, attentive and open hearing not only to the voices of the Church Fathers, not only to the favorite voices, not only to the voices of the classical past, but to all the voices of the past” (Karl Barth, “The Task of a History of Modern Protestant Theology”, in Protestant Theology in the Nineteenth Century: Its Background and History [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2002], 3).

Thus, if we should look to the past in order to think well about the future, then it is vital that we read the early Church Fathers. These were the men (and yes, I do mean a very gendered definition of men) who wrote letters, preached, lead, called forth and sat in ecumenical councils, and wrote theology on behalf of the church in the first six (or so) centuries of the Christian church. Many of the early creeds (e.g., the Nicene Creed & the amendments at Constantinople) and doctrinal statements (e.g., the dual natures doctrine formed at Chalcedon) were debated, written, and agree on (for the most part) by these early leaders of the church. 

The purpose of this reading group is to learn about these early theologians and the reasons that they established specific doctrines. Often they were responding to teachings (e.g., Arianism) that they felt were contrary to the gospel. In the early church, there was no systemic working through established systems of thinking through doctrine, for there were few widely established theological systems. (NB: This does not mean that doctrines such as the divinity of Jesus or the Trinity were made up by these thinkers. The councils established what was already commonly believed. They formalized more precise language for many doctrinal assumptions that were being reinterpreted and reformed by some teachers to deleterious effect [thus referred to as heresy].) Instead, the primary task was to think hard about foundational doctrines and defend the faith. The way this was done was to read scripture closely and to have dialogue (which is a nice way of saying that there were a lot of letters and councils and denouncing of heretics). None of the early councils happened until Constantine legalized Christianity in the early 4th century.  

All in all, these early thinkers helped establish orthodox thought in the worldwide Christian church. 

Here is a video for a little bit of silly trinitarian theology humor, and the issues that are brought up by language and analogy. Enjoy!