Christian Fathers

 

Charles G. Finney

Thomas DeWitt Talmage

Charles H. Spurgeon

Dwight L. Moody

Isaac M. Haldeman

Sam Jones

F.B. Meyer

James M. Gray

R.A. Torrey

J. Wilbur Chapman

Gipsy Smith

Billy Sunday

J. H. Jowett

G. Campbell Morgan

George W. Truett

J. Stuart Holden

AW Tozer

Oswald Chambers

James Mcdonald

Charles Stanley

CHURCH FATHERS RESEARCH

Athanasius

On the Incarnation

Life of St. Antony

– Original 27 New Testament books suggested and accepted

Augustine of Hippo

The City of God

John of Damascus

Veneration of icons

Byzantine Empire

Iconoclasts

The Fount of Wisdom

Orthodox

Anselm

Studied under Lanfranc

Ontological

Proslogion – that which nothing greater can be thought

Faith is the precondition of knowledge – “credo ut intelligam” – I believe in order to understand

Knowledge cannot lead to faith, and knowledge gained outside of faith is untrustworthy.

Why Did God Become Man?

Satisfaction theory – “No one but one who is God-man can make the satisfaction by which man is saved.”

Ransom theory – Humankind was held captive to sin and death by Satan, at least until Christ paid the ransom through his death, and in the Resurrection, broke the power of Satan’s chains.  Anselm argued instead that it wasn’t Satan who was owed something but God.

On his deathbed, Palm Sunday, 1107, Anselm told his monks he was ready to die, but before he did, he wanted to settle Augustine’s question of the origin of the soul.  “I do not know of anyone who will be able to do the work if I do not,” he told them.  But by Tuesday morning of the Holy Week, he was dead.

Steve Kellar’s idea of the origin of the soul –

Genesis 2:7  And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Muhommad’s hegira – bith of Islam – 622AD

Magna Carta – 1215

Dominican Order established – 1220

Thomas Aquinas

“the dumb ox”

“the doctor of angels”

Albert the Great

Aristotle

Averroes the Muslim

Maimonides the Jew

Summa Theologica -a summation of theological knowledge

“In sacred theology, all things are treated from the standpoint of God.”

Reason and revelation come from God

Reason is based on sensory data – what we can see, feel, hear, smell, and touch.  Revelation is based on more.  While reason can lead us to believe in God – something that theologians had already proposed – only revelation can show us God as he really is, the triune God of the Bible.

“In order that men might have knowledge of God, free of doubt and uncertainty, it was necessary for divine truth to be delivered to them by way of faith, being told to them as it were, by God himself who cannot lie.”

A person apart from Christianity can practice certain “natural virtues,” only a believer can practice faith, hope, and love, the truly Christian virtues.

Summa Contra Gentiles – a manual for missionaries to the Muslims, which also contains several hymns

Council of Trent

Aeterni Patris – papal bull – endorsed Thomism (Aquinas’s theology)

“I cannot.  Such things have been revealed to me that what I have written seems but straw.”

His Summa Theologica, one of the most influential writings of the Christian church, was left unfinished when he died three months later.

On this day…

• 3 John 3 – 2025
• The Press — Latest News – 2025
• Psalm 133 – 2024
• Psalm 134 – 2024
• Are you sure that’s what it said? – 2008
• JESUS A MODEL SOUL WINNER – 2008
• A TWO-FOLD EFFECT – 2008
• FACE THE FACTS – 2008
• GOOD GROUND HEARER – 2008
• Salvation is of the Lord – 2008