The Early Church Fathers, 38 Volume Set

Is anyone familiar with this set of books? http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=30815&event=6857SPF

yes I have it, it's definately worth the money

It is certainly a tremendous saving and they will look good on your shelves, but it may be that an electronic version with search facilities would suit you better.You might like to take a look at the Ethereal Library. You can access most, if not all, of your books online or buy a CD very cheaply. You can actually test run the CD.I know its good to feel the book in your hands but the search capabilities of the electronic versions will give you access to loads of stuff you would never have even guessed was there.

I recommend you begin with the first 10 volumes, 'The Ante-Nicene Fathers'. We found these books confusing and hard to understand at first. They're written in the stilted high-sounding English of 200 years ago. A friend of ours, David Bercot, has studied early church history in depth. He's edited the ante-nicene fathers into a topical encyclopedia called 'A Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs' which we use continually. He's also taken some of the major pre Nicene authors and published them in modern English. Check out his website Scroll Publishing. Everyone ought to have 'We Don't Speak Great Things, We Live Them' by Justin Martyr; 'The One Who Knows God' by Clement of Alexander, and my personal favorite 'Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History'. I consider Eusebius my spiritual grandfather. This book blew me away. A bit tough-going, but there are more modern translations out now.Be prepared for the journey of a lifetime. The studying my husband and I have done has grounded us firmly in 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints'. It humbled us to compare our interpretation of scripture with those of the pre-nicene church, which was only a generation or two removed from the days of the apostles. It answered dozens of questions we had about different doctrines, and brought us much peace.Mrs. Fred

Be prepared for the journey of a lifetime. The studying my husband and I have done has grounded us firmly in 'the faith once for all delivered to the saints'. It humbled us to compare our interpretation of scripture with those of the pre-nicene church, which was only a generation or two removed from the days of the apostles. It answered dozens of questions we had about different doctrines, and brought us much peace.Hi Mrs FredThere's an important insight here. It is humbling to realise that Christianity didn't begin with our generation and that many have laboured to expound the scripture.Perhaps a word of caution is needed too. By the end of the 1st century, even before the death of John, the declension prophesied had arrived. The outward expression of Christendom produced something very different in shape and spirit to the atmosphere of the New Testament. However their insights are valuable as long as we remember they were not inspired in the canonical sense.Somewhere in between blind Catholic acceptance of 'the early church fathers' and Luther's view of them as 'the early church babies' lies the truth.