The Apostolic Fathers – A Beginner’s Outline and Guide to Free Access

Posted on by Kenny Burchard
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One of the things most people notice about converts to the Catholic Church is that they have almost always discovered and become very familiar with the Church Fathers and their incredible writings. Because of this, many of them come to learn (and often quote) what St. Cardinal John Henry Newman discovered in his own deep dive into early Church History, when he wrote,

“And this one thing at least is certain; whatever history teaches, whatever it omits, whatever it exaggerates or extenuates, whatever it says and unsays, at least the Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever there were a safe truth, it is this,” and “to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant,” and finally “that Protestantism, then, is not the Christianity of history, it is easy to determine.” [1]

As Newman discovered (like thousands and thousands of formerly-Protestant Christians who travel down the same historical and literary path he traveled), the Christianity of history is Catholic. Nothing becomes more glaringly obvious than this to any honest reader of the earliest Christian writers — several of whom were contemporaries and disciples of the Apostles.

The wonderful thing about living in the age of the internet is that the extant writings of the early fathers are all available in text and audio formats completely free to anyone who wants to read them. In this post, I will outline the texts that anyone wanting to become familiar with the core writings of the earliest Fathers should commit to reading, and give a few locations where these can be accessed.

The Apostolic Fathers & Key Texts (Written)

The Apostolic Fathers are the first (and earliest) group of Fathers who lived during and immediately following the lives of the Apostles, and before the Council of Nicaea (in 325 AD), and so they are included as writers and leaders in a longer list known as the Ante-Nicene (meaning before Nicaea) fathers. Most of the links in the material that follows will take you to the online version of the Catholic Encyclopedia. I encourage anyone wanting to engage the material to first read the article introducing you to the individual Father and then read his epistles or books.

Additional Important and Essential Texts
Audio/Video Versions of the Texts

Pope St. Clement of Rome

St. Polycarp

St. Ignatius of Antioch

St. Justin Martyr

St. Irenaeus of Lyons

Others

Two final resources for beginners

If you want a great and easy-to-read guide to help you navigate the historical, biographical, and theological mega-themes, I highly recommend Marcellino D’Ambrosio‘s book, When the Church was Young.  If you prefer a podcast, you will find none better than Mike Aquilina‘s Way of the Fathers podcast at CatholicCulture.org. Be sure to start at episode #1, and work your way forward.

Okay, now get to it. Go and be “deep in history,” but beware! To do so is to cease to be a __________ (you know the word that goes here!).

 

Notes and references 

[1] See especially paragraphs 5 & 6 accessed in Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine here https://www.newmanreader.org/works/development/introduction.html

 

2 thoughts on “The Apostolic Fathers – A Beginner’s Outline and Guide to Free Access”

  1. OMG, Kenny – you don’t know how long I’ve been searching for this list with links to the Patristics. Thank you for sharing this with us – even those, like me, Cradle Catholic Reverts. God bless you. You, like so many other converts are making better Catholics of us. ; – )

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