Getting To Know The Church Fathers Summary

Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction Paperback, by Bryan M. Liftin Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2007, pp. 301, $ 23.99 ..

Introduction

Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction, author Bryan Liftin introduces this book to an extensive audience rather than just seminary students. This is a reliable guide to understanding the early Church Fathers rather than assuming knowledge toward this group. This book seems unproblematic to the author as he acknowledges that many evangelicals know very little about Early Church Fathers. As he points out in his introduction, all too often the patristic writers are dismissed because of one of three major misconceptions: 1) the church fathers lacked biblical authority; 2) the church fathers were Roman Catholic (noting the difference in “‘lowercase-c’ catholic Christianity” and “‘capital-C’ Roman Catholic Christianity”); 3) the church fathers are a representation of the fall of Christianity into the Middle Ages.1 However, Liftin looks to “introduce you in a more personal way to some of your spiritual ancestors.” 2The reader is immediately confronted with the knowledge that these Church Fathers were

His life is virtually unknown until his writings were found and tells us how relevant his life and passion for Jesus truly is. Liftin writes that he was facing bitter opposition from the Jewish, “expression of faith and the other from the beginning of Gnosticism “Faith and the Gnostics.”4 The author demonstrates his life was one of a trailblazer and one that was not founded on ignorance but on truth. The Apologist Justyn Martyr is introduced as the first Christian apologist in such a way that Liftin described him “ trudging through the snow and making a trail for others” 5 Justin Martyr wrote three key apologetic