Getting to Know the Church Fathers, 2nd Edition

A Trusted Introduction to the Church Fathers

This concise introduction to the church fathers connects evangelical students and readers to twelve key figures from the early church. Bryan Litfin engages readers with actual people, not just abstract doctrines or impersonal events, to help them understand the fathers as spiritual ancestors in the faith. The first edition has been well received and widely used. This updated and revised edition adds chapters on Ephrem of Syria and Patrick of Ireland. The book requires no previous knowledge of the patristic period and includes original, easy-to-read translations that give a brief taste of each writer's thought.

288 pages

Contents

Timeline
Introduction
1. Ignatius of Antioch
2. Justin Martyr
3. Irenaeus of Lyons
4. Tertullian of Carthage
5. Perpetua of Carthage
6. Origen of Alexandria
7. Athanasius of Alexandria
8. Ephrem the Syrian
9. John Chrysostom
10. Augustine of Hippo
11. Cyril of Alexandria
12. Patrick of Ireland
Epilogue
Index

"After years of neglecting the fathers, evangelicals are waking up to the importance of the patristic era and the various significant authors who inhabited it.‎ And this new edition of Bryan Litfin's book on this period of church history is an extremely lucid and reliable guide. A must read."

Michael A. G. Haykin, professor of church history, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

"Getting to Know the Church Fathers offers a clear and engaging introduction to the lives of some of the most significant Christians of the early church. Bryan Litfin has managed to take a subject that is often tedious and remote and transform it instead into one that sparkles with personal interest and contemporary relevance. The questions and bibliographies that end each chapter provide opportunities for further reflection and study, and the brief selections from these early Christian writers offer a glimpse into the hearts and minds of these key figures. Litfin's work offers a superb introduction to the formative Christian leaders of the church, one that is eminently readable and enjoyable."

Bruce A. Ware, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary