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Mary's Purification in the Early Christian (and Christian-esque) Writers
Tatian (120 – 180) produced the Diatessaron as an early Gospel harmony, which ended up being widely used in certain Syriac-speaking churches, oddly enough apparently to the displacement (or substitution) of the actual gospels. Tatian’s Diatessaron, Section II (as preserved in an Arabic translation) states: And when the days of their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they took him…
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Patristic References to 1 Timothy 4:10
So far, these are the patristic references to 1 Timothy 4:10 that I have been able to find: And, indeed, the old Hebrew wanderers in the desert received typically the end of the threatening; for they are said not to have entered into the rest, because of unbelief, till, having followed the successor of Moses,…
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Index Page for Responses to Ken Wilson's "Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to 'Non-Free Free Will'"
Dr. Kenneth M. Wilson wrote a book (2018), which is apparently an edition of a doctoral thesis he defended at Oxford (2012). The book, published by the respected publisher Mohr Siebeck as part of the reputable series, Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum (vol. 111), has a number of issues. Among the issues are…
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There's Something about … Luigi Gambero
Luigi Gambero is one of the leading Mariologists of our time. His book, “Mary and the Fathers of the Church,” (Ignatius Press, 1999 based on the Italian original of 1991) is one of the more exhaustive treatments of the subject that one can find from a Roman Catholic perspective. Sorry to my younger readers for…
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How does "Read Your Bible" Translate into "Formal Sufficiency"?
How does Origen teach the formal sufficiency of Scripture? Pastor David King received a hot response to his position that the following quotation supports formal sufficiency: The more one reads the scriptures daily the greater one’s understanding is, the more renewed always and every day. I doubt whether a mind which is lazy towards the…
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Reason for Corruption?
One possible reason for corruption of the patristic church was the influence of outside religions, particularly the idol-heavy pagan religions: C. Guignebert, in an illuminating article, [FN 59] points out that for the first five centuries many converts from paganism to Christianity lived a sort of double religious life, which made them what he calls…
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Review of "The Fathers Know Best" by Jimmy Akin
“Catholic Answers” recently published a book attributed to Jimmy Akin entitled “The Fathers Know Best.” It purports to be “Your essential guide to the teachings of the Early Church.” The book does not provide any meaningful contribution to the study of patristics and little to the Roman-Reformed dialog. Content in GeneralPart one of the book…
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Church Fathers on Jesus' Status as "Without Mother"
Ambrose (A.D. 337 – 397) writes: “He it is Who is without mother according to His Godhead …” (On the Mysteries, Chapter 8, Section 4 Theodoret (A.D. 393 – 457) writes: “On account of this difference of term He is said by the divine Paul to be “without father, without mother, without descent, having neither…
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Eastern Patrology (Patrologia Orientalis) & Syriac Patrology (Patrologia Syriaca) – Index Page
This is an index of the freely available on-line versions of Patrologia Orientalis (Eastern Patrology) and its immediate predecessor, the Patrologia Syriaca (Syriac Patrology). Both are edited by the Institut Pontifical Oriental de Rome. I am thankful to the following helpful website for providing information as to the content of the volumes (link). The primary…
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Ancient Christian Writers Series – Index Page
Ancient Christian Writers: The Works Of The Fathers In Translation, Edited by Johannes Quasten and Joseph C. Plumpe. These may be obtained from the publisher (link). Where I know the information, I’ve added the year of the book and a link to a free on-line source. 1. The Epistles of St. Clement of Rome and…