Formation: The Patristic Foundations
How do we form our whole person so that it does not become a disfigured (σκολιός) outgrowth of Modern Western Culture, which has passed from the nonplace of postmodernity into what has been called hypermodernism?
With great difficulty. With immense labor. With perseverance. In prayer, By Grace. And with the received wisdom of the Church handed down to us over generations.
To this end, we present below resources (primarily in the form of written texts with audio offerings in the next section) that begin with the Fathers of the Church (as well as Mothers [Ammas]), highlighting key theological figures with excerpts of their writing that we believe are absolutely indispensable for developing clinicians. This is by no means comprehensive, but will, we hope, be a start.
THE APOSTOLIC FATHERS
Writings contemporaneous with the disciples themselves, written amidst chaos, persecution and martyrdom
5-part Introductory Lectures by Fr. Josiah Trenham which provides an overview of the writings of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, etc.
Single lecture overview by Dr. Douglas F. Kelly with a further lecture on the next generation of The Apologists)
The Texts
Additional Text from the philospher, Aristides, from his defense of Christianity before Hadrian in 125 A.D. (See section XV for a description of the Christian…)
THE DESERT FATHERS
Antony the Great (251-356)
The father and founder of desert monasticism, who pursued the Gospel call of spiritual formation (Mt. 19:21) through decades of demonic warfare and the trials of desert solitude, returning after 35 yrs to spend the next half century forming spiritual communities that would bring life in the wilderness for the coming millennia
Athanasius
The 38 Sayings of Antony
Fr. Thomas Hopko: “I urge you, and, if I could, I would command you, to read St. Anthony’s thirty-eight sayings… Everything we need to know in order to live is there for us in its simplest and clearest form”
Introductory Lectures by Fr. Thomas Hopko (absolutely indispensable):
The Sayings of the Desert Fathers
Complete Alphabetical List of the Sayings (transl. by Benedicta Ward)
John Climacus
Written c. 600 A.D. at the request of his fellow Abbot of Raithu in Sinai, the work follows the Christian life through a pathway of thirty "steps", having as the Model the thirty years of Jesus before his active ministry. Kallistos Ware has written of it that “With the exception of the Bible and the service books, there is no work in Eastern Christendom that has been studied, copied and translated more often than the Ladder of Divine Ascent.”
This lecture by Thomas Hopko provides an excellent introduction and overview of the work
This podcast offers a line-by-line commentary of the work
Note: This important work from the 19th c., carries Climacus’ teachings from the Ladder forward into Modern era.
THE NICENE FATHERS
Athanasius, Chrysostom, Augustine—
The Flourishing:
Introductory Lectures
Thomas Hopko
(1939-2015)
Initially Professor of Dogmatic Theology (succeeding Serge Verkhovskoy) and later Dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, he was the son-in-law of Alexander Schmemann and exerted a great effect of renewal within the Orthodox Church in America.
Thomas F. Torrance
Featured in the section on Tacit Knowledge, we offer his 8-part series on the Nicene Creed
These lectures come from the Warfield Lectures of 1981 that formed the framework of his later book, The Trinitarian Faith, thought to be one of the most important theologic contributions of the 20th century::
“Creatively working with the Greek Fathers of the time (the ancient church), Torrance follows the mind (phronēma) of the catholic church in constructing an account of the triune persons that, while theologically dense, is not a species of scholastic synthesis, but rather an example of dogmatic theology (catholic), where the biblical and economic witness (evangelical) take precedence over theological propositions.”
John Meyendorff
(1926-1992)
Former professor of Church History at the St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, Meyendorff later joined the faculty of St. Vladimir’s, acting as the Dean from 1984-1992 directly following the death of Alexander Schmemann
Beginning with Tertullian and Cyprian of Carthage through the Nicene Fathers
The Fathers presented through the lens of Gregory Palamas (1296-1357)
Douglas F. Kelly
Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary whose lectures are also featured in ‘the next section under “The Word” and “The Body of Christ”
Tracing the formation of vital Christian orthodoxy from the Apostolic Fathers through the Apologists to Irenaeus and later Hippolytus of Rome in their response to Gnosticism (which heresy is still at work in our era..) to Origen and the Alexandrian School then to Athanasius, Hilary of Poitiers and the Cappadocian Father, Gregory Nazianzus
The Figures
Athanasius
(The disciple of Antony, in whose community he sojourned during his first exile by Constantine over the Arian controversy through parts of his subsequent two exiles. The year of Antony’s death in 356 marked the date that Athanasius began writing the Life of Antony, which would become one of the most influential biographies in the history of the Church, East and West).
On the Incarnation of the Word
Letters to Serapion On the Holy Spirit
Chrysostom
(Also formed in the desert communities until being forced out in 381 to be made deacon in Antioch, from where his “golden tongue” oratory moved him to become Bishop of Constantinople and one of the greatest Fathers of the East)
6 Homilies on Wealth and Poverty taken from the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus
Select Homilies and Treatises from “Concerning Lowliness of Mind” to “No Man Can Harm the Man That Does Not Injure Himself” to the fascinating intrigues of “Eutropius”, here are displayed the heights of Chrysostom’s oratory brilliance.
Homilies on the Gospel of John and Epistle to the Hebrews offering an introduction to his comprehensive exegesis that formed a synthesis between the Antiochene and Alexandrian schools.
Four additional volumes in the NPNF series
Augustine
(Set on the pathway of metanoia the same year as Chrysostom was made a deacon in Antioch, 381 A.D.—A year that would mark the birth of two of the greatest Fathers of East and West
THE CAPPADOCIAN FATHERS
Basil of Caesarea
Six overview lectures by Fr. Maximos Constas on his life and teaching
On Social Justice: Four recently translated homilies on texts such as Mt 19.16-22, “To the Rich”, [The translation of which is available above] and Lk 12.16-21, “I Will Tear Down My Barns”, which were likely written in 368 during the greatest famine in the history of Caesarea. The work of Basil, who was a priest in the diocese of Caesarea in that time, formed the basis for what would subsequently become the foundations of the modern hospital system, with the complex of care that he developed later taking on the name of the “Basiliad.”
Gregory of Nyssa (His Brother)
Homily on the Love of the Poor
Gregory of Nazianzus (His lifelong friend)