The proposed synopsis of a course of lectures on patristics is based on student recordings of lectures given at St. Vladimir's Theological Academy (New York) in 1979-81.

The proposed course does not purport to be a comprehensive coverage of relevant material. Rather, its purpose was to determine the historical situation, the main trends of theological thought, and the main issues that needed to be explained and discussed. At the end of the course, students were expected to have a personal acquaintance with the literature of the subject and relevant written works.

In terms of the general content of the course, the most suitable textbook in Russian can be considered the course of the professor of the Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris, and then of St. John. Vladimir Theological Academy in New York, Archpriest. G. Florovsky's "Oriental Fathers of the Fourth Century", Paris, 1931, and "Byzantine Fathers of the V-V111 Centuries", Paris, 1933. For the understanding of historical development in the era of patristic writing, the books of Professor V.V. Bolotov of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy "Lectures on the History of the Ancient Church", St. Petersburg. 1907-18, and Professor of the Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris A.V. Kartashev, "Ecumenical Councils", Paris, 1963. For acquaintance with patristic theology in general and especially with Trinitarian disputes, the book by A.A. Spassky "History of Dogmatic Movements", 1, Sergiev Posad. 1906. as well as the brilliant and more recent work of V.N. Lossky "Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church", Theological Works, Ed. Moscow. Patr., 1972. Some problems of patristic thought are objectively and profoundly expounded in the recently published book by V.V. Bychkov "Byzantine Aesthetics", Moscow, 1977.

Of the earlier works in Russian, the most important are: F.W. Farrar, "The Life and Works of the Holy Fathers and Teachers of the Church", transl. Translated from English by A.P. Lopukhin. St. Petersburg, 1891; Rev. Philaret (Gumilevsky) "Historical Teaching on the Fathers of the Church". 1859: N.I. Barsov, "The History of Primitive Christian Preaching", St. Petersburg. 1885: S. Zarin "Asceticism in the Orthodox Christian Teaching", St. Petersburg. 1907: P. Minin "The Main Trends of Ancient Church Mysticism". Bogoslovsky Vestnik. 1911-14: Sergius (Stragorodsky, later Patriarch) "The Orthodox Doctrine of Salvation", Sergiev Posad. 1894: I.V. Popov "The Idea of Deification in the Ancient Eastern Church". Question. Filos. and Psychol.. 97 (1906). Additional bibliographic references to individual chapters are given at the end of the book.

Introduction

Among other theological disciplines, patristics (or patrology) is a discipline that deals with the study of the works of the Holy Fathers of the Church. When they speak of the Fathers of the Church, they usually mean great theologians, such as, for example, Sts. Ignatius of Antioch, Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas – saints whose teachings and names have firmly entered the Orthodox Tradition.

On the other hand, an equally integral and inevitable part of the history of Christian thought are such personalities as, for example, Origen, a heretic, but, nevertheless, a great Christian thinker and theologian. Although Origen was not a Father of the Church, without knowledge of his teaching, it is impossible to understand the logic of the development of Christian theology in the first five centuries, since his teaching lies at the basis of all the main currents of Eastern Orthodox thought of that time.

The concept of "Holy Fathers of the Church" is inseparable from the concept of Church Tradition, one of the deepest foundations of our faith. Holy Tradition, both with a large and a small "p", in turn is associated with the concepts of authority and selection. Christians have one Teacher, Christ, but His teaching was not written down by Him personally during His earthly ministry. Therefore, we receive the entire content of our faith, so to speak, "at second hand." The New Testament writings are the testimony of eyewitnesses chosen for this role by the Lord Himself (Matthew 10:1-5; Luke 6:14-15; 24-48, etc.). They were entrusted with keeping in mind and writing down all that they saw, heard, and touched (1 John 1:1). But the New Testament books were not written immediately after the events described in them, but several decades later. During this time, the memory of the life and words of Christ was transmitted from mouth to mouth, from person to person, and thus oral tradition arose. This tradition existed in the memory of individuals, but at the same time it was an expression of the faith of the Christian community, the Church. This community was created by Christ, and it can be said that after His coming it has always existed. As the Savior Himself promised, His disciples are guided by the Spirit of God Himself, the true source of life for the Christian community. Christ lives in the Church, and the Holy Spirit teaches His disciples "all truth" (John 16:13). Individuals do not live in a vacuum, but belong to the Church, which is the temple of the Spirit and the environment where there exist not only individual human customs and traditions, but also a single sacred Tradition, written or unwritten. The Holy Spirit guides the whole body of the Church, and therefore the Church, guided by her fullness of knowledge and authority, selects what is to become her Tradition.

This selection was carried out already in apostolic times. It is known that the Holy Apostle Paul wrote at least two more epistles that were not included in the New Testament canon. Nor was the epistle attributed to the Apostle Barnabas included in the New Testament. The Gnostic gospels were also rejected as apocryphal. Only Divine Providence can explain why certain works were rejected or accepted into the canon in the earliest times. At that time, there were no scientific and historical methods for establishing the authenticity of various records of Christ's words or the reliability of this or that apostolic writing. But nevertheless, it turned out that the selection was made correctly, even from a historical point of view. It is remarkable that even then apostolic authorship in itself was not the only criterion of truth. Thus, the two above-mentioned epistles of Paul were not included in the canon; The Epistle to the Hebrews probably does not belong to the pen of the apostle himself; the Evangelist Mark, as is well known, described from the words of St. Peter; finally, neither St. Luke nor the great Paul himself were among the apostles chosen by Christ during His earthly ministry. Thus the selection took place, and this selection was carried out by the authority and intuition of the whole Church, inspired and led by the Holy Spirit.

The life of the Church is inseparably linked with Holy Tradition, and in the historical pilgrimage of the New Israel there is a constant and urgent need for the Church's authoritative witness to its Tradition. The Fathers of the Church are considered to be such personalities, teachers and writers, in whom the Church unanimously recognizes authoritative witnesses, i.e. people who deeply understood and correctly interpreted the Revealed Truth.