The Early Fathers

Mary Ann Collins
(A Former Catholic Nun)

January 2002
Revised August 2002

Catholic apologists often quote the "Early Fathers" in support of Catholic doctrines, the papacy, and other Catholic claims. Who were these people?

There were many early Christian leaders, including priests, bishops, and scholars. There were a lot of these men, and they had a wide variety of opinions on religious matters. Their theological differences were as widely varied as those of theologians from different denominations are today. [Note 1]

Because of this wide variety of beliefs, one person can find some Early Fathers to support one position, and another person can find other Early Fathers to support the opposite position.

But it's not a level playing field. Among all of those early Christian leaders, who decided which ones qualified to be called Early Fathers? The Catholic Church. Who decided which works should be copied and passed on to posterity? Copying was a slow, tedious job before the invention of the printing press. Who decided which writings were important enough to copy? The Catholic Church.

Note

1. Malachi Martin, “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Church,” pages 11-28. The author was a Catholic priest and a theologian.

USE OF THIS ARTICLE

I encourage you to link to this article. You have permission to quote from this article, as long as you do it fairly and accurately. You have permission to make copies of this article for friends and for use in classes.

Copyright 2002 by Mary Ann Collins. All rights reserved.

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