Thank Tertullian of Carthage for his role in forming a distinctively western Christianity. He gave us words in our own language to express the inexpressible: words like Trinity and Sacrament. He also introduced the world to the idea of freedom of conscience. Our civilization rests on his ideas. Links Tertullian, Apology https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1662 Tertullian, To Scapula https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1682 M...
Apr 28, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Sarcastic, bombastic, and brilliant, Tertullian of Carthage may be the most entertaining of the Church Fathers. He also did more than anyone else to launch theology in the Latin language. His life and his work were provocations to his opponents—who included many pagans and more than a few Christians. Learn about him (and the fascinating world of early North African Christianity) in this episode. Links Tertullian, Apology https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=166...
Apr 13, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Marcus Minucius Felix is one of the greatest writers you never heard of. His "Octavius," written in the late second century, is a work of fictionalized memoir set in the resort town of Ostia. Three friends go to the beach, and in a day of walks and conversation one of them leads another to conversion. It is the most deeply human study we have of the early Christians, describing the feel of the ocean breezes and the sand between their toes — and the best arguments for believing. Links The Octaviu...
Mar 24, 2020•22 min•Season 1Ep. 12
He was a prophet living altogether in the Spirit. He was a second-century apologist, able to elucidate the doctrine of Christ for the understanding of strangers. He was a bishop, so he spoke with hierarchical authority. For us, though, Melito of Sardis is most valuable for the Paschal liturgy he left us. It is an important witness to Jewish-Christian relations at a crucial time in their development. His Peri Pascha serves well for the Lenten-Easter seasons and for a lifetime. Links Melito's "Per...
Mar 16, 2020•25 min•Season 1Ep. 11
In the late second century the Church suffered an infestation of heresies — many of them, and they kept changing their claims. Into the fray God sent the great pioneer of anti-heretical literature, Irenaeus of Lyons. The title of his best known work says it all: Against Heresies. Irenaeus's tools range from logic to parody. He put the smack down on some strains of heresy, and they stayed down for centuries. Links Free text of Book 3 of Irenaeus's "Against Heresies" https://www.catholicculture.or...
Feb 25, 2020•16 min•Season 1Ep. 10
"Whatever things are rightly said are ours." St. Justin looked at creation and saw Christ. He looked into the mind of Plato and found a Christian, born centuries before his time. Speaking with Romans, speaking with Greeks, speaking with Jews, he sought the good in his adversaries' best ideas and showed that the good belonged properly to Christ and Christians. Though he lived in the second century, his description of the Mass was used in the Church's 20th-century Catechism. He showed us how to be...
Feb 12, 2020•19 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Forget the Dale Carnegie course. Here's how to win skeptical friends and influence pagans. Read the second-century Letter to Diognetus. The author's name is lost to history, but his warm, winsome overture still stands as a model of apologetics — the art of explaining and defending the faith. The Letter is often counted as the last of the writings of the Apostolic Fathers — or the first of the writings of the second-century Apologists. No matter how you shelve it, it's good reading, praised by sa...
Jan 22, 2020•20 min•Season 1Ep. 8
The Shepherd of Hermas is the strangest text from the Church's earliest period. It's at once a conversion story and a first-person account of heavenly visions. It's a poem in prose and a guidebook for morals. It exercised a powerful influence in the early centuries of Christianity, especially on the practice of the sacrament of penance. Links Free online text of The Shepherd of Hermas https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1647 More Works by the Fathers https://w...
Jan 08, 2020•13 min•Season 1Ep. 7
The work of the early Church was largely done by Christians whose names we'll never know. In fact, many of the most important documents from the first and second centuries have unknown or uncertain authorship. In this episode we examine some of those fascinating documents — the Didache, the Letter of Barnabas, and Second Clement — and we pay homage to our great (though nameless) ancestors in the faith. Links Kenneth Howell's new translation of the Didache and Second Clement https://www.amazon.co...
Dec 20, 2019•19 min•Season 1Ep. 6
St. Polycarp of Smyrna was a man with many connections. He knew the Apostle John, and St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Irenaeus of Lyon, and Pope Anicetus, and the arch-heretic Marcion. He also sought the company of many elders who had heard Jesus and witnessed the Lord's miracles. Polycarp led a long and fascinating life, and he died a martyr's death. In this episode we tell his story through his many relationships — his social network in the infant church, which like an infant child was rapidl...
Dec 11, 2019•19 min•Season 1Ep. 5
St. Ignatius of Antioch is the first of the Fathers to leave us abundant writings. His seven letters are passionate — warm, yet authoritative — spontaneous, but doctrinally rich. Written in 107 A.D. as the aged bishop traveled from Antioch to a martyr's death in Rome, the letters give witness to many of the early Church's beliefs and practices: Jesus' true humanity and true divinity; his real presence in the Eucharist; and the universal hierarchy of bishop, priest, and deacon. The host of this p...
Nov 26, 2019•23 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Clement of Rome led a church in turmoil. Its people were deeply divided. The secular culture was hostile to the faith. Across the ocean from the Eternal City the laity were rising up in rebellion against the clergy. And it was only 67 A.D. St. Peter was hardly cold in his grave on Vatican Hill. How should his successor lead in such a crisis? Clement healed the Church in the way of the Apostles: by writing a winsome, reasonable, gentle letter — which is the subject of Episode 3 of "The Way of the...
Nov 13, 2019•21 min•Season 1Ep. 3
In this episode we examine the history of the study of the Fathers since the Reformation. The field has enjoyed explosive growth since then. We live in a time when so many works by the Fathers (and about the Fathers) are freely available online. What drives people to read the Fathers? Well, they're apologetically useful. The Fathers returned to vogue after the 16th century because both Catholics and Protestants believed the documents of the early Church would be useful in apologetics. And they a...
Oct 30, 2019•13 min•Season 1Ep. 2
With this episode author Mike Aquilina begins his twice-monthly series on the lives, times, and works of the early Church Fathers. The Way of the Fathers begins with answers to basic questions. What is fatherhood? And who are the Fathers? The answers come from sources ancient (Vincent of Lerins) and modern (Ratzinger) — theologians who draw from the still more ancient words and patterns of biblical religion. Mapping the Way of the Fathers, Aquilina touches upon the achievements of the early Chri...
Oct 17, 2019•15 min•Season 1Ep. 1
