Reddit reviews The Complete Ante-Nicene & Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection: 3 Series, 37 Volumes, 65 Authors, 1,000 Books, 18,000 Chapters, 16 Million Words
We found 13 Reddit comments about The Complete Ante-Nicene & Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection: 3 Series, 37 Volumes, 65 Authors, 1,000 Books, 18,000 Chapters, 16 Million Words. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
This is where many people have directed me. I generally read from Schaff's collection on an e-book, available for a few bucks here (when I'm not borrowing them in actual print form from my pastor's library).
> Was it purely from interpretation and majority vote that lead to establishing of doctrine of the trinity?
You mean, to distinguish it between the interpretation and majority vote that led to the canonization of the New Testament, the liturgical rites, worship on Sunday, etc.?
The Writings of the Church Fathers used to cost hundreds of dollars, take up tons of library space, and were a bear to find information. They're now $2.99 on Amazon, and, as are all other digital books, are searchable. Enjoy.
I've got both the OSB and the CSB Ancient Faith Study Bible. The commentary in the CBS one is very good, however there are problems withe the CSB translation itself. The CSB has a pretty clear low church congregationalist bias.
My advice: get both! The OSB has a more Orthodox friendly translation (and the commentary is good, but as you say is certainly coming from an Orthodox perspective). Then just use the CSB one for the commentary.
If no one has pointed it out to you already, there is another great resource for source material from the Church Fathers. The Complete Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection contains pretty much every work written by every Church Father and Doctor of the Church, East and West. It's also dirt cheap for the Kindle version. The only problem is this material is not curated in any way: you are literally getting all of it. It can feel like drinking from the firehose. In hardback it is something like 37 volumes? It's huge. My suggestion would be to start with the particular works you are interested in rather than reading it front to back.
Church Fathers
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If you have a kindle, you can't do much better than The Complete Ante-Nicene, Nicene & Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection, which is an ebook version of a definitive 37-volume series, for $2.99. And unlike other ebook versions of this series, this one has active linked tables of contents (both for the whole series and for each individual book), rendering it much more usable.
Start earlier than the Council of Nicaea. That'd be like skipping from the Declaration of Independence straight to FDR's New Deal... where's everything in-between?
First things first, there are some late first-century, early second-century texts to read. Some of these were even written before a few of the new testament books, making them contemporaries of new testament authors.
You know what? Just buy this and read it in order. It's only $3.00 on Kindle.
Not free, but $3 nets you The Complete Ante-Nicene & Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection which is a bargin.
You could get a free ebook copy, skim it and decide. Alternatively you could do that and just read the entire thing without dropping that much cash on it - or use the cash on a Kindle and read the free ebook on there, and walk away with spare cash, a Kindle, and a whole rabbit hole worth of Christian literature potential.
There ... is a lot of Christian writing available for free, or very cheap, and the Kindle is a great way to read it, in my opinion. Exhibit A.
Historical evidence: [The Fathers Know Best] (https://www.amazon.com/Fathers-Know-Best-Essential-Teachings-ebook/dp/B004LGRYEE), [Complete Collection of the Church Fathers] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Ante-Nicene-Post-Nicene-Fathers-Collection-ebook/dp/B00KYBSUUM/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493763857&sr=1-1&keywords=church+fathers), and [Four Witnesses] (https://www.amazon.com/Four-Witnesses-Early-Church-Words/dp/0898708478/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1493763945&sr=1-1&keywords=rod+bennett).
Scriptural evidence: [This] (https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Defense-Catholicism-Dave-Armstrong/dp/1928832954), [this] (https://www.amazon.com/More-Biblical-Evidence-Catholicism-Armstrong/dp/1430322438), and [this] (https://www.amazon.com/Biblical-Basis-Catholic-Faith/dp/1592761461) look to be good places to start.
Not free, but you can't beat this set for $3. Caveat emptor: there are no footnotes in this edition. The more expensive version from CCEL does have the footnotes.
In the meantime, while you save your money for the entire collection in print, you can get the Amazon Kindle version for $4. I got it a long time ago, and it was one of the reasons I later converted to Catholicism. So, I am very pleased with my purchase.
It is on Canadian Amazon, and I'm not sure out of country sales go. I hope that you are able to purchase it.
I'd suggest Jimmy Akins The Fathers Know Best which compiles quotes from the Church Fathers and Akins enumerates them based on subject. It's not comprehensive but it's a good start and touches on a lot of things such as doctrines and dogmas, teachings and long held Church belief like contraceptives. It's a great book if you just want to look up what the Fathers have said and it's a great apologetics tool if you want to back up your positions. Either way, I think the following three books might be more inline with what you're looking for.
I haven't read this one, but I do know the author and it looks like it's right up your alley. Papandrea is a Catholic professor and this book covers important documents from the Early Church period and dissects the texts and explains them to you.
Another book that is similar to Papandrea's book.
Similar in content to the last two. Worth checking out.
And here's if you want to read the Church Fathers directly
I've constantly heard that the Jurgens 3 volume set was one of the best physical sets to buy. It's pricey, but I do know that it's cheaper on ebay so might be worth looking for it on there. (That is assuming you're within the US)
I suggest you buy it digitally for next to nothing, it's great on Kindle and works well as a more comprehensive resource for studying the Fathers. His set is also digitalized online if you'd like to read it there for free. Absolutely no difference in content. Word of caution though, Schaff translated this in the late 19th century and was a Protestant, so his commentary may not always be historically and theologically sound. He does provide an exhaustive amount of footnotes that maintain the citations the Fathers used which is a task of its own. A great resource but with certain limitations.
Thanks! I don't particularly like reading for long durations of time on the Kindle. Albeit, there is this collection for the kindle, which looks pretty nice.
But, I'd prefer to have a hardcover collection over a digital one.