This is a handbook designed to help you learn about the role of the Church Fathers, the world in which they lived, who they were, and what they taught on various subjects. It is divided into two main parts. Part One provides background on the Fathers, and Part Two provides excerpts from their writings, arranged by topic.
Because it is a handbook, you do not have to read it from beginning to end. If you wish, you can go directly to those subjects that most interest you, then refer to other sections for more information. For example, you might turn immediately to the “Infant Baptism” chapter in Part Two, see what the Fathers had to say about it, and then turn to the “Know Your Fathers” chapter in Part One to read the brief biographies of the Fathers who were quoted on infant baptism. Next, you might want to see where they lived and turn to “The World of the Fathers,” which offers maps showing their locations.
Whatever path you choose to take through this book, it will offer a wealth of information.
Part Two is based on a series of columns that originally appeared in This Rock magazine, published by Catholic Answers. Other employees of Catholic Answers oversaw the column before my time, but for twelve years—from the June 1993 issue to the column’s end in the December 2005 issue—I compiled and edited it by collecting quotations from the early Church Fathers on a variety of topics and writing introductions to them.
Like this book, the column was called “The Fathers Know Best”—a whimsical title based on Father Knows Best, the radio and television comedy starring Robert Young.
“The Fathers Know Best” was popular, and a series of tracts were produced based on it. The new book format allows a richer and more comprehensive look at the Fathers and their world, as well as the addition of more background material in Part One.
Adrienne von Speyr FOREWORD Some years ago I had an experience with the sacrament of penance that I will never forget. It was a Saturday ... View eBook
Scott and Kimberly Hahn Foreword One of the beautiful and bright-shining stars in the firmament of hope for our desperate days is this couple, Scott ... View eBook
Gabriele Amorth AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION When the Pope’s Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Ugo Poletti, unexpectedly granted me the faculty of exorcist, I did ... View eBook
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger On the Inaugural Volume of My Collected Works The Second Vatican Council began its work with deliberation on the “Schema on the ... View eBook
Hilaire Belloc INTRODUCTION: HERESY What is a heresy, and what is the historical importance of such a thing? Like most modern words, "Heresy" is used ... View eBook
Hilaire Belloc The Path to Rome When that first Proverb-Maker who has imposed upon all peoples by his epigrams and his fallacious half-truths, his empiricism ... View eBook
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Foreword In the course of my years in Rome, I was invited again and again by Bavarian Radio to give meditations on ... View eBook
Eloi Leclerc Preface The most awesome sentence which has been pronounced against our times may well be this: We have lost our innocence. To say ... View eBook
Joseph Pearce PREFACE When Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was voted the ‘greatest book of the century’ in a nationwide poll at the beginning ... View eBook
Robert Hugh Benson PREFACE I am perfectly aware that this is a terribly sensational book, and open to innumerable criticisms on that account, as well ... View eBook
Biography of St. Augustine BOOK ONE IN GOD’S searching presence, Augustine undertakes to plumb the depths of his memory to trace the mysterious pilgrimage of ... View eBook
Fr. Paul O'Sullivan FOREWARD "READ ME OR RUE IT" This title is somewhat startling. Yet, Dear Reader, if you peruse this little book, you will ... View eBook
Wearing the Scapular, a Form of Consecration WEARING MARY'S Scapular is a way to consecrate ourselves to Her service. Consecration sets apart a person or ... View eBook
1. The Mind of the Catholic Church on Modesty in Dress Often today we hear sensible people complaining about the immodesty in dress that is ... View eBook
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen The perfection of all motherhood is Mary, the Mother of Jesus, because she is the only mother in all the world ... View eBook
Robert T. Hart INTRODUCTION What is related in these pages is of the greatest importance. Though the events in question took place in Germany, what ... View eBook
Thomas a Kempis The First Chapter Imitating Christ and Despising All Vanities on Earth HE WHO follows Me, walks not in darkness,” says the Lord ... View eBook
Venerable Louis of Granada CHAPTER 1 The First Motive which obliges us to practice Virtue and to serve God: His Being in itself, and the ... View eBook
Saint Louis Mary Grignon de Montfort EXCELLENCE OF THE ASSOCIATION 1. Friends of the Cross, you are like crusaders united to fight against the world; ... View eBook
St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria Chapter 1 Creation and the Fall In our former book we dealt fully enough with a few of the chief ... View eBook
Saint Francis de Sales Preface Dear reader, I request you to read this Preface for your own satisfaction as well as mine. The flower-girl Glycera ... View eBook
Holy Bible The 1983 Code of Canon Law entrusts to the Apostolic See and the episcopal conferences the authority to approve translations of the Sacred ... View eBook
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich Introduction The following meditations will probably rank high among many similar works which the contemplative love of Jesus has produced; but ... View eBook
Jacques Philippe Introduction In the Western Catholic tradition the term “prayer” covers many different activities. The following pages mainly concentrate on mental prayer: prayer that ... View eBook
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