Fact Check: Patristics

Patristics or patrology is the study of early Christian writers who are designated as Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin pater and Greek patēr (father). The period of the Church Fathers, common called the Patristic era, is generally considered to run from the end of New Testament times or end of the Apostolic Age (c. AD 100) to either AD 451 (the date of the Council of Chalcedon) or to the Second Council of Nicaea in 787.

The Church Fathers are generally divided into the Ante-Nicene Fathers, those who lived and wrote before the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) and the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, those who lived and wrote after AD 325. Also, the division of the Fathers into Greek and Latin Fathers is also common. Sone of the most prominent Greek Fathers are Justin Martyr, Athanasius of Alexandria, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Crysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Maximus the Confessor. Among the Latin Fathers are Tertullian, Cyprian, Jerome, Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, and Gregory the Great.

There were also Church Fathers who wrote in languages other than Greek or Latin, such as Coptic, Syriac, Ge'ez, and Armenian, among others. Historically, Chalcedonian Christians have had less interest in these authors since the associated churches ended up rejecting the councils of Chalcedon (becoming Oriental Orthodox), or Ephesus (becoming the Church of the East). Recently this has begun to change, with the cooling of tensions between these branches of Christianity and the Western and Byzantine ones. There are Eastern Catholics who follow Oriental rites while remaining in communion with Rome.

Major focuses for these theologians during the period are, in chronological order, Christianity's relationship with Judaism; the establishment of the New Testament canon; apologetics (the "defense" or "explanation" of Christianity); and doctrinal discussions that sought to achieve consistency in faith, in particular with Christianized Roman Empire. Following the scholar of Christianity Alister McGrath (1988), several major areas of theology can be seen to have developed during the Patristic Period: the extent of the New Tedtament canon, the role of tradition, the fixing of the ecumenical creeds, the two natures of Christ, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the Church, and the doctrine of divine grace.

Alister McGrath notes four reasons why understanding patristics can be difficult in the 21st century:

1. Some of the debates appear to have little relevance to the modern world
2. The use of classical philosophy
3. The doctrinal diversity
4. The division between the East and West, i.e., Greek and Latin methods of theology, the exrent of use of classical philosophy.

The terms neo-patristics and post-patristics refer to recent theologies according to which the Church Fathers must be reinterpreted or even critically tested in light of modern developments since their writings reflected that of a distant past. These theologies, however, are considered controversial or even dangerous by orthodox theologians.

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