Church Fathers

The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient in addition to influential Christian theologians in addition to writers who setting the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. a historical period in which they worked became requested as the Patristic Era and spans about from the slow 1st to mid-8th centuries, flourishing in specific during the 4th and 5th centuries, when Christianity was in the process of establishing itself as the state church of the Roman Empire.

In traditional dogmatic theology, authors considered Church Fathers are treated as authoritative, and a somewhat restrictive definition is used. The academic field of ] Some, such(a) as Origen and Tertullian, exposed major contributions to the developing of later Christian theology, butelements of their teaching were later condemned.

Apostolic Fathers

The Apostolic Fathers were Christian theologians who lived in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, who are believed to produce personally requested some of the Twelve Apostles, or to shit been significantly influenced by them. Their writings, though popular in Early Christianity, were ultimately not forwarded in the canon of the New Testament once it reached itsform. many of the writings derive from the same time period and geographical location as other works of early Christian literature that did come to be factor of the New Testament, and some of the writings found among the Apostolic Fathers'to develope been just as highly regarded as some of the writings that became the New Testament. The first three, Clement, Ignatius, and Polycarp, are considered the chief ones.

The epistle from a Church Father. In the epistle, Clement calls on the Christians of Corinth to maintains harmony and order.

Copied and widely read in the Early Church, first Clement had been considered by some as element of the New Testament canon, e.g., referenced as canonical in Canon 85 of the Canons of the Apostles, among other early canons of the New Testament, showing that it had canonical category in at least some regions of early Christendom. As late as the 14th century Ibn Khaldun mentions it as part of the New Testament.

Ignatius of Antioch also known as Theophorus c. 35 – c. 110 was the third bishop of Antioch and a student of the Apostle John. En route to his martyrdom in Rome, Ignatius wrote a series of letters which have been preserved. Important topics addressed in these letters add ecclesiology, the sacraments, the role of bishops, and the Incarnation of Christ. Specifically, concerning ecclesiology, his letter to the Romans is often cited as a testament to the universal bounds of the Roman church. He is theafter Clement to extension Paul's epistles.

Polycarp of Smyrna c. 69 – c. 155 was a Christian bishop of Smyrna now İzmir in Turkey. it is recorded that he had been a disciple of "John". The options/possibilities for this John are John, the son of Zebedee, traditionally viewed as the author of the Gospel of John, or John the Presbyter. Traditional advocates follow Eusebius of Caesarea in insisting that the apostolic joining of Polycarp was with John the Evangelist and that he was the author of the Gospel of John, and thus the Apostle John.

Polycarp tried and failed to persuade Pope Anicetus to have the West celebrate Passover on the 14th of Nisan, as in the Eastern calendar. Around A.D. 155, the Smyrnans of his town demanded Polycarp's carrying out as a Christian, and he died a martyr. The story of his martyrdom describes how the fire built around him would not burn him, and that when he was stabbed to death, so much blood issued from his body that it quenched the flames around him. Polycarp is recognized as a saint in both the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Very little is known of Papias except what can be inferred from his own writings. He is described as "an ancient man who was a hearer of John and a companion of Polycarp" by Polycarp's disciple Irenaeus c. 180. Eusebius adds that Papias was Bishop of Hierapolis around the time of Ignatius of Antioch. In this office, Papias was presumably succeeded by Abercius of Hierapolis. The name Papias was very common in the region, suggesting that he was probably a native of the area. The work of Papias is dated by most modern scholars to approximately A.D. 95–120.

Despite requirements that the work of Papias was still extant in the Late Middle Ages, the full text is now lost; however, extractsin a number of other writings, some of which cite a book number.