The Fathers of the Church

The Fathers of the Church
By Mike Aquilina

Give your ancestors a vote. Christianity is not something that is derived from me and my bible in my prayer closet, but rather the great body of our Lord Jesus Christ who has bestowed upon us this new creation, beginning in the Church and spreading outward. The reason why we think about God in the way that we do if we are traditional Christians, and especially if we are Eastern Orthodox, is very much the result of the prayers, worship and hard work of a group of men who the Church has labeled "Fathers", meaning that they are the ones to whom we look for guidance in terms of reading the bible, trusting which books are in and out of the bible, learning how to worship rightly (just anything won't do) and how to pray, basically showing us what to believe and how to "be Christian" by guarding the great deposit of the faith "once delivered to the saints."

You won't go wrong using this book as a starting point, but you should know that the commentary is very much edited to reflect the Western Roman tradition. You may also consider reading Reading Scripture With the Church Fathers, Learning Theology With the Church Fathers, Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers (Penguin Classics), Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought, Greek Orthodox Patrology: An Introduction to the Study of the Church Fathers, The Early Church Fathers (38 Vols.) (if you want to get into it seriously), Beginning to Read the Fathers and The Mass of the Early Christians.