The Fathers of the Greek Church - Hans von Campenhausen

Published by Adam and Charles Black Limited: London, 1963.
Translated from German by LA Garrard.
First published in German as 'Griechische Kirchenväter' in 1955.

A 'proper' theological work by a 'proper' theologian, The Fathers of the Greek Church gives a brief biography of a number of the - wait for it - fathers of the Greek Church. Being written by a theologian, it is no surprise that the book focuses more on the theological writings of each individual than their actual biography, although this is still covered.

I love church history, and what I enjoyed about Fathers was learning more about the beliefs of a number of these individuals, or even (for a few) hearing about them at all! With early church history it is also interesting to track the development of concepts that modern believers take for granted. It is not that these concepts had to be invented - as Scripture alludes to them - but it took some time for the understanding of these concepts to be solidified. Reading about the individuals that God used to do this work is an interesting undertaking, particularly when some of the individuals, such as Cyril of Alexandria, come across as fairly worldly and underhanded in their approach. Von Campenhausen even includes one individual, Synesius of Cyrene, who was appointed a bishop whilst not being a Christian!  On the other hand, others - such as Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria and John Chrysostom - are interesting enough - and faithful enough in their witness - that I am curious to read more about them, or perhaps even some of their works.

The main difficulty with Fathers is the way von Campenhausen writes. This might be exaggerated by the translation from German, but the book is very academic and a bit dry in its presentation. Although the individuals were fascinating figures, I did find myself wishing the book was a little more engaging at times.

Overall, a good introduction to an interesting period of church history, but not an easy read.

Completed 20 May 2024.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Image
Published by Allen & Unwin: Crows Nest, NSW, Australia, 2008. Book snobs, block your ears. *whispers* I think the movie was better. Okay, book snobs, you can unblock your ears now. *waves to get the attention of book snobs* To be honest, a huge reason why I read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at this moment in time was that I thought it would be funny to have two books with ridiculously long titles appear back-to-back in my list. For anyone who thought that there were super-deep reasons why I picked the books that I did, I hope this helps you see the error of your ways. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (which I am refusing to shorten for the rest of this review) still tells the same story as that in the movie adaptation (also called  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ), but does so in a less gripping (though still interesting) manner. This is for a few reasons: firstly,  The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society book is e
Read more

The Murder of Mr Wickham - Claudia Gray

Image
Published by Vintage Books/Penguin Random House LLC: New York, 2022. 'A Mr Darcy and Miss Tilney Mystery' Book 1. Followed by ' The Late Mrs Willoughby. ' The second book I've read in what could be a developing sub-genre: Jane Austen mysteries! Death Comes to Pemberley was the first, and although that was written using intentionally Austen-style choice of words, The Murder of Mr Wickham is far more successful in creating both the Austen feel and the proper murder-mystery vibe . It is also a little larger in scope than Pemberley was; this time, the characters in the story are not just pulled from Pride and Prejudice , but seemingly from every Austen novel! I say seemingly as I have still not read all of her works, but characters from  Sense and Sensibility   turn up, as do characters from Emma , and the rest seem to be referring to other literature as well. The author has even created her own 'Austen timeline' to make sense of her plot, telling us that the D
Read more

Various Picture Books

Image
As I said in my review of Peter Rabbit's Storytime Collection , I am wanting to find a way to acknowledge the books I read to Ezekiel without adding individual picture books to my reading list - I feel that would dilute it a bit much. So in this post, I've decided to look at a group of picture books all together. I've picked five picture books that I like (with a notable and noteworthy exception), and also asked Elise for five picture books she is  enjoying reading to Ezekiel. It's interesting (and helpful for this list) that our lists haven't overlapped at all this time around. So, here are ten picture books (plus one bonus 'book') that Ezekiel has been exposed to in the first 7ish months of his life: Karl's List Bunnies on the Bus - Philip Ardagh and (illustrator) Ben Mantle. Published by Walker Books Ltd: London, 2020 (2019). This is one of my favourites among our current picture books. A group of bunnies hijack a bus and hurtle through the town on th
Read more