When I was a student at a Baptist College, I heard about the “Church Fathers” but all I knew was that they lived a long time ago, had long weird-sounding Latinish names, wrote about theology, and were contained in these big sets of old books in our library.

In the last few years, I’ve come to appreciate the Church Fathers for who they were: actual Christians from long ago who wrote about what they believed and how they practiced their Christianity. What’s interesting is that the early Christians wrote about doctrine for the purpose of clarifying what they believed, often in response to heresies that were arising at the time. So if we want to get a snapshot of what Christians believed at a particular time, like how they interpreted various Scripture passages or doctrines, we can read what Christians wrote at the time. We can also trace doctrines through time and build a continuity of beliefs by reading these things from people who lived at different times.

There are lots of resources online for finding out what the Church Fathers believed, as well as reading what they wrote. I’ve included these in my Links Sidebar also.

Fathers Know Best
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
Church History Timeline
Chronology of Christianity (1AD-Present)
Church Fathers
Early Church Fathers Overview: Snapshot of the Fathers of the Church
Early Church Fathers