The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Study path

Reading the Fathers with the Church

How to read an ancient text without misusing it: genre, edition, attribution, reception — and a guided reading.

  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.
  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.

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The Fathers are quoted constantly and read rarely. This path is about the difference.

It sets out four questions to ask of any patristic text, works through the problem of disputed and pseudonymous authorship, examines what the consensus of the Fathers means when the Fathers plainly disagreed, and closes with a guided reading of one chapter with the archive open beside you.

Lessons

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  1. How to read a Father Genre, edition, attribution and reception — four questions to ask before you quote anything. 7 min — Not yet read
  2. Disputed and pseudonymous authorship Why 'Pseudo-Dionysius' is not an insult, and how attribution and reception differ. 6 min — Not yet read
  3. Consensus, disagreement and correction The Fathers disagreed. Here is how the Church handles that, and how it does not. 6 min — Not yet read
  4. Guided reading: Irenaeus on the rule of faith A single chapter, read closely, with the archive open beside you. 8 min — Not yet read

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) The Seven Ecumenical Councils annotated edition of conciliar texts The principal primary source behind this path; individual lessons cite more specifically. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.