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How to Explain :
Why Early Church
Fathers are Important
While I appreciate the zeal of some of those I see on TV, I think their
approach could use some tweaking. They will say,
“Don’t read the church fathers unless you want to become Catholic.”
To the Catholic this makes a good argument.
But, to the Protestant it does not work.
We have to put ourselves into the minds of Protestants and see how they
perceive things.
They are more likely Not to see why the Fathers are important.
They think :
We have the Bible. We
reject Tradition.
Bible Alone is all we need.
The first goal for the
Catholic is Not to convince the Protestant that the Early Church Fathers
were Catholic, it is Not to give the Protestant a reason to reject or
ignore the
Fathers. Unlike the Catholic mind, the Protestant is not looking for a
reason to become Catholic. On the contrary, they are more likely looking
for reasons and justifications for why they are justified in rejecting
Catholicism.
How to Motivate Protestants to Read Church Fathers
So, the first goal for the Catholic is Not to explain that the Early
Church Fathers were Catholic, but to explain why the Protestant needs
the Early Church Fathers.
While it is true that a study of the Early Church Fathers was
instrumental to the conversions to Catholicism for John Henry Newman,
Dr. Kenneth Howell, Rod Bennett and a host of others, they did not begin
a study of the Fathers because they were looking for a reason to become
Catholic. John Henry Newman started to study the Fathers in order to
defend his Anglicanism and why he did not need to become Catholic. He
wrote, “Lead kindly Light” because it was taking him to a place he did
not want to go. Rod Bennett seems to have begun a study of the Fathers
looking for a way to solve doctrinal disputations among Protestants and
a way to connect with the Early Church, Not so he could become Catholic.
I suggest using the following words :
Early Church Documents
Biblical Reason for Studying Those Documents
Tradition : Good or Bad ?
No Early Church Means No Bible
How Do We Decide Which Books Belong in New Testament ?
Oldest Completely Correct New Testament Canon Was Not Until St.
Athanasius in AD 367
Historical Continuity with Church Jesus Built
How Do We Decide Disputes on Correct Interpretation of Bible ?
The best introduction to Early Church Fathers, especially for
Protestants, is in my opinion
The Apostasy That Wasn't:
The Extraordinary Story of the Unbreakable Early Church (Hardcover Book)
By: Rod Bennett
See : C.
Explaining Why History is Important !
see :
Fathers of the Church
Why They are Important
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