This article examines how the names of “church fathers” were compiled into lists from the end of the fourth century to the middle of the sixth century. Although not as common as biblical canon lists, these lists of church fathers attempt to vest ecclesiastical authority in the figures listed. Surveying Greek and Latin Christian literature, it finds that there are two overarching strategies for listing church fathers: (1) linking individual fathers’ authority to their involvement in authoritative church councils; (2) compiling lists of names that are meant to be representative of the church’s antiquity and catholicity.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
Casiday, Augustine. “Tradition as a Governing Theme in the Writings of John Cassian.” Early Medieval Europe 16, no. 2 (2008): 191–214. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2008.00227.x.
Chadwick, Henry. “Dionysius of Alexandria.” Pages 161–165 in idem, The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great. Oxford History of the Christian Church. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Chronister, Andrew C. “Augustine and Patristic Argumentation in His Anti-Pelagian Works: Change or Continuity?” Augustiniana 64, no. 1/4 (2014): 187–226. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44992952.
Clayton, Paul B. The Christology of Theodoret of Cyrus: Antiochene Christology from the Council of Ephesus (431) to the Council of Chalcedon (451). Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2007.
de Mendieta, Emmanuel Amand. Unwritten and Secret Apostolic Traditions in the Theological Thought of St Basil of Caesarea. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd, 1965.
DelCogliano, Mark. “Tradition and Polemic in Basil of Caesarea’s Homily on the Theophany.” VC66, no. 1 (2012): 30–55. https://doi.org/10.1163/157007211X561662.
Drobner, Hubertus R. The Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction. Translated by Siegfried S. Schatzmann. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007.
Droge, Arthur J. Homer or Moses? Early Christian Interpretations of the History of Culture. HUT 26. Tübingen: Mohr, 1989.
Gioanni, Stéphane. “Les listes d’auteurs ‘à recevoir’ et ‘à ne pas recevoir’ dans la formation du canon patristique: Le Decretum Gelasianum et les origines de la ‘censure’ ecclésiastique.” Pages 17–38 in Compétition et sacré au haut moyen âge: entre mediation et exclusion. Edited by Philippe Depreux, François Bougard, and Régine Le Jan. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015.
Graumann, Thomas. “Väterzitate bei Theodoret.” Studia Patristica 37 (2001): 492–498.
Graumann, Thomas. The Acts of the Early Church Councils: Production and Character. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford; New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198868170.001.0001.
Gray, Patrick T.R. “‘The Select Fathers’: Canonizing the Patristic Past.” Studia Patristica 23 (1989): 21–36.
Gray, Patrick. “Through the Tunnel with Leontius of Jerusalem: The Sixth-Century Transformation of Theology.” Pages 187–196 in The Sixth Century: End or Beginning. Edited by Pauline Allen and Elisabeth Jeffreys. Byzantina Australiensia 10. Leiden; Boston, MA: Brill, 1996.
Gribomont, Jean. “Esotérisme et tradition dans le traité du Saint-Esprit de Saint Basile.” Pages 22–58 in Oecumenica: An Annual Symposium of Ecumenical Research. Edited by Friedrich Wilhelm Kantzenbach and Vilmos Vajta. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg, 1967.
Grillmeier, Aloys. Christ in Christian Tradition, Volume One: From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon (451). Translated by John Bowden. Nashville, TN: Westminster John Knox, 1988.
Guarino, Thomas G. Vincent of Lérins and the Development of Christian Doctrine. Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013.
Hanson, R.P.C. “Basil’s Doctrine of Tradition in Relation to the Holy Spirit.” VC22, no. 4 (1968): 241–255. https://doi.org/10.2307/1583217.
Jebaseelan, John. “Understanding St Basil of Caesarea’s Reference to Secret and Unwritten Apostolic Tradition in On the Holy Spirit.” Phronema 33, no. 1 (2018): 91–102.
Kahlos, Maijastina. “‘But Our Customs Are Older’: The Authority of Antiquity in Late Antique Debates.” Pages 27–38 in Authorities in the Middle Ages: Influence, Legitimacy, and Power in Mediterranean Society. Edited by Sini Kangas, Mia Korpiola and Tuija Ainonen. Fundamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture 12. Berlin; Boston, MA: de Gruyter, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110294569.27.
Kane, Michael A. “St. Basil’s On the Holy Spirit: A Secret Tradition or the Rule of Faith?” Diakonia 35, no. 1 (2002): 23–37.
Lamberigts, Mathijs. “Augustine’s Use of Tradition in his Reaction to Julian of Aeclanum’s ‘Ad Turbantium’: Contra Iulianum I–II.” Augustinian Studies 41, no. 1 (2010): 183–200. https://doi.org/10.5840/augstudies201041111.
Lamberigts, Mathijs. “Augustine’s Use of Tradition in the Controversy with Julian of Aeclanum.” Augustiniana 60, no. 1/2 (2010): 11–61. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44993034.
Langworthy, Oliver B. “Theodoret’s Theologian: Assessing the Origin and Significance of Gregory of Nazianzus’ Title.” JEH 70, no. 3 (2019): 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022046918001951.
Lods, Marc. “Progrès dans le temps de l’Église selon Vincent de Lérins.” Revue d’histoire et de philosophie religieuses 55, no. 3 (1975): 365–385. https://doi.org/10.3406/rhpr.1975.4282.
Price, Richard. “Conciliar Theology, Resources and Limitations.” Pages 1–19 in Die Synoden im trinitarischen Streit. Edited by Uta Heil and Annette von Stockhausen. TUGAL 177. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110420258-001.
Ribreau, Mickaël. “La constitution du dossier patristique du ‘Contra Iulianum’ d’Augustin.” Augustiniana 69, no. 2 (2019): 239–275.
Richard, Marcel. “Dyophysite Florilegia of the Fifth and Sixth Centuries CE.” Pages 321–345 in Doctrine and Debate in the East Christian World, 300–1500. Edited by Averil Cameron and Robert Hoyland. The Worlds of Eastern Christianity 300–1500. Abingdon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2011.
Ridings, Daniel. The Attic Moses: The Dependency Theme in Some Early Christian Writers. Studia Graeca et Latina Gothoburgensia 59. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis, 1995.
Saint Augustine: Against Julian. Translated by Matthew A. Schumacher. Fathers of the Church 35. Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2004.
Smith, Mark S. The Idea of Nicaea in the Early Church Councils, AD431–451. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
Smith, Peter J. “John Cassian’s Royal Road: Discretion, Balance, and the Tradition of the Fathers.” Downside Review 139, no. 2 (2021): 145–153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0012580621997049.
Stewart, Quentin D. Lutheran Patristic Catholicity: The Vincentian Canon and the Consensus Patrum in Lutheran Orthodoxy. Zürich: LIT Verlag, 2015.
The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon. Translated, introduction and notes by Richard Price and Michael Gaddis. Translated Texts for Historians 45. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005. https://archive.org/details/the-acts-of-the-council-of-chalcedon-translated-texts-for-historians-lup-volume-45/mode/2up.
von Dobschütz, Ernst. Das Decretum Gelasianum de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis. Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1912. https://archive.org/details/dasdecretumgelas00dobs/mode/2up.
Williams, Megan Hale. The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship. Chicago, IL; London: University of Chicago Press, 2006.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 303 | 280 | 23 |
Full Text Views | 14 | 12 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 292 | 252 | 1 |
This article examines how the names of “church fathers” were compiled into lists from the end of the fourth century to the middle of the sixth century. Although not as common as biblical canon lists, these lists of church fathers attempt to vest ecclesiastical authority in the figures listed. Surveying Greek and Latin Christian literature, it finds that there are two overarching strategies for listing church fathers: (1) linking individual fathers’ authority to their involvement in authoritative church councils; (2) compiling lists of names that are meant to be representative of the church’s antiquity and catholicity.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 303 | 280 | 23 |
Full Text Views | 14 | 12 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 292 | 252 | 1 |