Reddit reviews The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600) (Volume 1)

Just jumping in and reading the Fathers will seem far more daunting than reading the Bible cover to cover. There's an absolutely vast corpus and the geographical and temporal range in which these works were written is huge.

My suggestion is to start with an introduction:

Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church



Duchesne, Louis. Early History of the Christian Church


Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1


Then, once you've got enough background on an author (such as Irenaeus), check out a work by them (in Irenaeus' case, Against Heresies is a masterpiece). Or read a book specifically on that author. There's tons of stuff on Augustine, very little on Aphrahat. But ad fontes should be your standard. It's always best to read the Fathers themselves, but it can be really confusing to do so without any guidance.

I do this for a living, so if you want more specific recommendations or advice or guidance in reading an author, PM me.

> I come from a very rural area of England but in my town alone we have an Anglican (High Church) church, a Catholic church, a Methodist church, a Baptist church, an Eastern Orthodox church, potentially some others I do not know about, and also there is a society of friends here.

Why not visit them all?

> However Works of Mercy are also an important part of the Catholic Church, so that point alone doesn't really help me decide, even though to me it's important that I am involved with a church which values Works of Mercy.

Works of Mercy should be something all Christians agree is important!

> The biggest issue in choosing which church to go to is that because I was not brought up religious at all and my family are so anti-religious I really don't know much about it, and have not explored my faith at all with anyone else so don't really know how I stand on a lot of the important divides between the denominations.

I suppose step one is learning what all these different groups teach, then. This is a surprisingly good introduction. For something more in depth, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years is very good. If you really want to go in depth, A History of Doctrine (this is volume one of five) is pretty much comprehensive.

Of course, you shouldn't just sit in your house reading books. Get up and go visit all those churches you've mentioned. Speak with the priest/pastor/minister and ask them your questions about their church and it's teachings!

There is a set of books by Jeroslav Pelican that I have enjoyed. They go over church history, but also traces how certain doctrines. You can find the first volume here:

https://www.amazon.com/Christian-Tradition-Development-Doctrine-Emergence/dp/0226653714

Unfortunately on this topic, all books will have some bias. The trick IMO is to read each book with this in mind.

EDIT: I also just remembered the book by J.N.D. Kelly "Early Christian Doctrines".

Start with Eusebius. After that, Jaroslav Pelikan's multi-volume set will keep you busy for a good while.

Jaroslav Pelikan's The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine volumes one through three.

Dense and comprehensive.

Edit: Though those are a history of doctrinal development, not of church history per se...

Jaroslav Pelikan's "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine."

Sure. The first thing I did was read the primary sources and pretty much in chronological order. I began with the Apostolic Fathers (Michael Holmes has this edition with Greek and English). I then read some 2nd century stuff, especially Irenaeus. Cyprian, Tertullian, etc, were all important. The fourth century took me forever to read through. I probably stayed in the 4th century for a year.

For secondary literature, I'd recommend, in no particular order:

Jaroslav Pelikan, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition

J.N.D. Kelley, Early Christian Doctrines

Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (Chadwick is my doctoral grandfather, so to speak)

Adrian Fortescue, The Early Papacy: To the Synod of Chalcedon

Benedicta Ward's translation of The Sayings of the Desert Fathers

Less to do with Church history, but filling in some intellectual gaps:

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy

Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Called to Communion

Henri de Lubac, Catholicism: Christ and the Common Destiny of Man (This may shock people that I recommend it, but I do like the nouvelle théologie every now and again)

I also welcome /u/koine_lingua to offer some of his own recommendations to give some balance if he'd like.

Dan Brown isn't a source. This is a source. Or this one.

I second this! Amazon links, in case someone needs them:

Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4, Vol. 5

The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine by Jaroslav Pelikan is an excellent series.

Well, for a great general history of Christianity until the middle ages I recommend The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine series, Vol. 1, Vol. 2, and Vol. 3. This was written by Jaroslav Pelikan, an ecumenically minded convert to Eastern Orthodoxy from Lutheranism.

Something for the intersection of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy: Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity

Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma is a great summary of what Roman Catholicism actually is.

The Spirit of the Liturgy is a beautiful exploration of what you experienced at York Minster written by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI during his Cardinal days.

As for Celtic Christianity... to be honest it isn't an interest of mine so I can't personally recommend anything. However, these look good:

Christ in Celtic Christianity: Britain and Ireland from the Fifth to the Tenth Century

Celtic Monasticism: The Modern Traveler to the Early Irish Church

Irish Jesus, Roman Jesus : the Formation of Early Irish Christianity

Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams

Good luck in your studies, God bless.

It's hard to just jump into reading the Fathers unaided. I would suggest reading some introductions to Patristic thought while reading the Fathers alongside. For introductions, check out, in no particular order:

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. I: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)

Wilken, Robert Louis. The Spirit of Early Christian Thought

Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church

O'Keefe, John and R.R. Reno. Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible


As to which of the Fathers you should read:

Irenaeus, Against Heresies

Origen, On First Principles

Tertullian, Against Praxeas

Augustine, On Christian Doctrine

_, Confessions

___, On the Trinity

, Homilies on 1 John

Ephrem, Hymns (Check out McVey's translation)

Basil of Caesarea, Epistles 210 and 214

, On the Holy Spirit

Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word

Eusebius of Caesarea, Church History

The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity

Egeria's travel diary (the Peregrinatio Egeriae)

>history seems to go against Christianity

What do you mean?

I've read the books and I think they're overall pretty good, though a bit dated. If you're looking for a multi-volume series on the history of Christianity, I'd read Jaroslav Pelikan's The History of the Development of Doctrine series - Vol. I here.

I can recommend The Christian Tadition by Jaroslav Pelikan in five volumes. There are lots of different aspects to religion you might be interested in. This one discusses the development of doctrine, in great detail.

I think you might be missing some of the richness and connotations of the statement "Jesus is LORD."

Is that a damnable offense? I find it hard to believe that you can deny Christ's divinity and actually place your faith in God, so I'd lean towards yes, especially given the history and councils regarding the subject, but it's far from a certainty.

If you're interested in a more academic analysis of how the concept of the trinity came to be, this book is kind of the academic standard for the history of early theology (or so I'm told) and I found it very enlightening.

People in this sub like to make this such a cut and dry topic, but it was anything but for the first few hundred years of Christianity and wasn't even completely settled by Nicea.

I'd recommend a couple of books as starters. The most basic is The Early Church by Henry Chadwick. That gives a solid, broad overview of almost the exact time period you have in mind.

From there, you can expand your reading a bit. Jaroslav Pelikan is one of the central contemporary authorities on Christian history, and his five volume magnum opus The Christian Tradition is probably as hefty a reference as any layperson will need. Elaine Pagels' studies extrapolating on the evidence afforded by the gospels is also fascinating stuff. I'd recommend starting with The Origin of Satan. Another is Rebecca's Children: Judaism and Christianity in the Roman World by Alan Segal. The temporal scope of that one is much narrower, and it pays equal (if not more) attention to the origins of Rabbinic Judaism, but it's a strong source for understanding the initial import of Christianity.

Try this one as Pelikan traces the history of doctrine:

http://www.amazon.ca/Christian-Tradition-Development-Doctrine-Emergence/dp/0226653714/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396036362&sr=1-2&keywords=jaroslav+pelikan

I have his full set and found it to be excellent.