Many writers in the later Christian tradition might speak broadly of their spiritual fathers, namely, their more immediate teachers. St. Bonaventure (d. 1274), for example, refers to Alexander of Hales (d. 1245), his teacher at the University of Paris, as his spiritual father. Dominicans and Franciscans invoked the founders of their religious communities, Sts. Dominic (d. 1121) and Francis (d. 1226), as their guiding fathers in imitating and preaching Christ. The traditional Fathers of the Church, however, had a longer and wider claim to respect. In the view of some scholars, they extended from the time of the Apostolic Fathers, like St. Clement of Rome (d. c. 100), to the last of the Western Fathers, St. Isidore of Seville (d. c. 636), and the last of the Eastern Fathers, St. John of Damascus (d. c. 750). Other modern scholars cut the era off with St. Gregory the Great (d. 604), while still others extend it to 850.
This community of respected Church writers also contained a special group of more renowned authors, the Doctors of the Church. At first, there were equally four doctors from the East (Sts. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, Athanasius (d. 374), and Gregory of Nazianzus (d. 390)) and four from the West (Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great). In modern times, a number of other traditional Fathers have been added to the list of Doctors: Sts. Cyril of Jerusalem (d. c. 386), Cyril of Alexandria (d. c. 444), Hilary of Poitiers, and John of Damascus. The criteria of qualifications for doctors include renowned sanctity as well as faithful learning. An outstanding learned man who had great influence in developing the understanding of Christian beliefs, such as Origen, is excluded from the list of Doctors of the Church because he is not officially canonized and held some faulty doctrinal positions. Some, nonetheless, still consider him a Church Father, since he made strong contributions to the orthodox teachings of the Church both by opposing errors and by bringing greater understanding to the faith.
Those enshrined in the ranks of the Fathers form a much larger group than the Doctors of the Church. The general criteria for their admission to this community are antiquity, orthodoxy, moral goodness, and church approval. Disagreements over meeting these criteria are frequent. Antiquity is measured somewhat ambiguously by the undefined border between Antiquity and the
Middle Ages. While full orthodoxy is desired, often, as in the cases of Tertullian and Origen, brilliance and vigor in presenting and defending the faith overshadow for many the errors or inexactness that are attached to some of their dubious teachings. Moral goodness is not the same as canonized sanctity, so this criterion in the eyes of some demands that the way of life of a Father of the Church only be such that it does not interfere with a firm grasp of divine revelation. Approbation certainly, at times, is a formal declaration of a pope or church leader or council, but it may also be attained in a virtual way through a general Christian consensus.
While these criteria for the most part function within a confessional context, often the study of the Church Fathers, called Patristic studies, extends to authors who are not considered Church Fathers, such as pagan authors like Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian the Apostate, who provide the context for apologetic works by Christians attempting to refute their attacks on Christian life and belief. Even of more importance for understanding many of the works of the Fathers are philosophers, like Plato, Proclus, Plotinus, Seneca, and Cicero, as well as Jewish authors, like Philo Judaeus, who influenced early Christian writers. Since a major role of the Church Fathers was to defend the Christian faith, it also is necessary to know its enemies and its heretical interpreters, such as Simon Magus, Arius, Nestorius, and Pelagius, who provide the context for many Patristic writings.
World History
