How to Read the Holy Fathers: A Guide for Orthodox Christians

Introduction

I was twenty-five when I first encountered the Church Fathers in earnest. As I began to read their writings, I was instantly drawn into a world that was ancient but surprisingly new. It was an experience like the one a woman described upon first discovering patristic thought through the writings of Fr. Seraphim Rose, saying it was “like drinking pure water after wading in muck.”1 I have since spent more than half my life studying their thought—for both personal edification and academic purposes—and have struggled to follow their shining example (however imperfectly). The one thing I have come to understand is that Orthodox Christianity cannot exist without the witness and solicitude of its saints.

The Orthodox Church is deeply rooted in tradition. Her doctrines, practices, and texts have been handed down, generation to generation, for two millennia. These traditions are not simply a fixed set of customs but a living inheritance embodied by the faithful in each particular time and place. What connects an Orthodox Christian today to those who lived in the past is a shared worldview that encompasses everything we say and do: our theological tenets, our asceticism and spiritual practices, our participation in communal worship and the Sacraments, and our practice of God’s commandments. When we follow this way of life, we are guided by the clergy—our bishops and presbyters—who received their authority through another sort of handing down, a succession of ordination we can trace back to the apostles themselves. But the clergy are not alone in this task; the entire Church is entrusted with the preservation and dissemination of the Orthodox Christian Faith.

The movement of Tradition through time may be an organic, historical process, but it is not blind: It is always guided by the Holy Spirit. Thus we may refer to our patrimony as Holy Tradition because it is not merely the fabrication of humans. And the same Spirit that preserves and enlivens Holy Tradition also raises up certain individuals from within the Church to be its expositors and defenders, a specific class of those called to be saints (from the Latin sancti, or “holy ones”). God imparts wisdom to them because they love and serve Him with all their heart, all their soul, all their mind, and all their strength (Mark 12:30). We refer to these men collectively as the Holy Fathers (or Church Fathers) because, like parents overseeing a household, they act as wise caretakers of the Faith. Their lives, and the works they have left us, are a testimony to that authentic Christian religion established by Jesus through His apostles. Simply put, if we want to engage and embody Holy Tradition, we must necessarily encounter the Fathers.

In recent decades, reference to the Fathers has become commonplace in Orthodox parishes, due in large part to the academic study of these luminaries, known as patristics, that rose to prominence in the twentieth century (from the Latin word patres, for “fathers”). Scholars like Fr. Georges Florovsky invited us to “return to the Fathers” in a way that seeks to apply their wisdom to the concerns of our own age. 2 Orthodox seminaries began to offer specialized courses in reading not to twist their words to our own purposes. When we read them correctly, their writings open up to us another world in which biblical passages, liturgical hymns, doctrinal treatises, and ascetical practices come together as a cohesive whole. We begin to see through their eyes and are able to move past the dichotomies we cling to with our modern (or postmodern) minds, delving more deeply into Orthodox Christianity and discovering greater meaning for our lives. Without the Holy Fathers, we swim in a shallow pond; but with them, we dive into the depths of the sea.

The idea for this book emerged from my work in sharing this patrimony with my parishioners and college students. In fact, this book is not intended for an academic setting; instead, it presents the Fathers to the average Orthodox Christian reader with the hope that all will be able to taste of this great bounty. In part 1, I offer guidance in choosing which books to read, unpacking the texts, and avoiding pitfalls that lead to false interpretations or application. Then, in part 2, we examine the various patristic literary genres together and look closely at examples of each from specific saints. Throughout our expedition I encourage you to enter into a relationship with the Fathers through prayer and imitation of their lives. As we unlock this vault of spiritual riches, may the saints’ fervent intercessions guide us.