"How to Read the Holy Fathers" by Fr. Joseph Lucas: A Review

A book that answers the call of a growing Church

Introduction

While people find their way home to Orthodoxy through many different means, exposure to the teachings and wisdom of the “Church Fathers” underpins many, if not most conversions. A growing awareness of Orthodoxy’s continuity from the earliest teachers of the Church, combined with an ever increasing amount and availability of English translations of early Christian writings means that the would-be inquirer is bound to encounter these figures in one form or another.

Having access to and reading the words of these eminent figures is all good and well, and can be an excellent gate to use to enter into the wider world of Eastern Orthodoxy. But an issue that has become more apparent in recent years is bound up in the question of how to read the Fathers. Further questions naturally arise from this one. For example, where does one start? Taking a brief look at some online libraries, one can be easily overwhelmed; St.Augustine alone has more writings than one can read in a lifetime, and some fathers have hundreds of homilies and letters on top of dense tomes related to dogmatic disputes. And while one could start small and pick up the Penguin Classics’s Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers and read through that first, the next question will inevitably be “now what?”, or questions related to how these writings are applied in the Orthodox Church today, the broader context in which these writings were composed, etc. All of this points to the reality that if Orthodox Christians are to read the Fathers, they need to have a guide to help them work through the history, context, and worldview that the Fathers were operating in.

Fr. Joseph Lucas has answered this call with the publication of his recent book How the Read the Holy Fathers: A Guide For Orthodox Christians. Fr. Joseph Lucas has a PhD in theology from Radbound University in the Netherlands, and earned an MDiv with Distinction in Patristics from the famous St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, among other literary and academic accomplishments.

Fr. Joseph’s new book is published by Ancient Faith Publishing, and as this review will show, Fr. Lucas demonstrates his wealth of knowledge and insight in this work that not only does the Fathers-and the Orthodox Church Church at large- justice, but does so in a way that is pastorally sound and accessible to a wide audience.

Book Layout

Fr. Joseph’s work includes an Introduction, Parts 1 and 2, which contain a total of 12 chapters, a conclusion, and then several appendices.

Part 1 is titled “Methodology”, and contains chapters 1-3. This section of the book details a plethora of important and beneficial concepts that Orthodox Christians should be aware of before undertaking a study of the Fathers. The field of scholarship related to the Church Fathers, the continuity of the Fathers from age to age, and the various pitfalls that would be readers may encounter are just a few of the themes covered in this section.

Part 2 is called “Application” and includes the rest of the main body of the work (chapters 4-12). Each of these chapters is dedicated to a specific genre of literature that the Fathers’ works fell under, and each one is dedicated to a select group of fathers to demonstrate the specifics of each type of writing and how they have impacted the Orthodox Church today. For example, chapter 4 is titled “Biblical Exegesis”, and highlights St. John Chrysotom’s writings on Genesis and then St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Glaphyra on the Pentateuch. The other chapters follow a similar pattern; chapter 7 is called “Doctrinal Treatises” and focuses on Sts. Gregory the Theologian and Gregory Palamas, chapter 10 is titled “Liturgical Commentaries” and explores the theology of St. Germanus of Constantinople and St. Nicholas Cabasilas, and so on.

Following the book’s conclusion, there are five appendices attached that provide the reader with a treasure trove of further reading and information related to the Fathers, including a timeline of the Church fathers, a suggested graduated reading list, and overview of various Church Father book series that are available in English.

Review

There are many positive things I can say about Fr. Jospeh’s book. But out of these positive qualities, there are a select few that deserve more attention, and thus I will focus on these ones for this review.

For starters, Fr. Joseph does a tremendous job of taking a complex subject like the Church Fathers and making them highly accessible with his writing, while not watering down the material or making it too simplistic. The author is able to distill the scholarly debates of our time and the conflicts that raged during the early church down to a level where today’s Orthodox Christian can understand and appreciate their significance while not getting tangled in the weeds of the discussion. Additionally, the book’s reading content amounts to roughly 212 pages, so while it definitely takes dedicated reading time to work through, it still remains manageable for one seeking to understand how to approach the Fathers from an Orthodox perspective. The combined utilities of parts 1 and 2 also make it a book that can be appreciated by Orthodox Christians of different levels of knowledge. Those just beginning with the Fathers will probably benefit the most, but even those who have immersed themselves in the writers of the Church will still benefit from Fr. Joseph’s guidance on navigating different translations, the levels of importance certain works have over others, etc. I was grateful for the translation recommendations at each chapter’s beginning, as I previously would sometimes feel lost as to which translation was better than another. The appendices at the back are also much appreaciated. I personally think the most valuable one is the “Graduated Reading List” that provides a suggested reading plan for patristics that increases in difficulty over time.

Secondly, Fr. Joseph strikes a crucial balance on an important question, that being how one can be faithful to the Orthodox tradition while interacting with modern scholarly tools and methods of interpretation. It is common today to see two approaches taken; one is either to devote oneself entirely to the “scholarly consensus” and the opinions of academics, even if it means sacrificing aspects of Orthodox tradition and/or how the Church may view the Fathers. On the other hand, one may choose to entirely dismiss academic scholarship under the well-intentioned yet misguided idea that they are preserving the purity of Orthodoxy from skeptics. Fr. Joseph’s book shows how both of these approaches are mistaken.

On the one hand, Fr. Joseph points to the obvious reality that dealing with patristic texts simutlataneoulsy means that we are going to be dealing with patristic scholarship and the works that have been born out of that field. A key point in this that Fr. Jospeh mentions is how most lay people are not versed in the original languages that the Fathers wrote in, and so the translations of texts requires dedicated experts (pg. 34). Indeed, it would appear that without “the experts”, we wouldn’t have these texts available to us in English at all. Furthermore, he also notes that reading a patristic text properly does require a grasp of the background from which the author was originally working in, and that a consensus of scholars on these details can be indicative of sound work on their part (pg. 35-36).

But at the same time, Fr. Joseph never concedes one inch of ground from the Orthodox Faith, especially to those who attempt to declare that we are now in a “post patristic age”:

In response, we must assert that any version of the Faith that rejects or diminishes the importance of the Church Fathers severs the golden chain of Holy Tradition that continues into the present, and thereby distort the timeless truths of Christianity. We cannot bypass the or move beyond the Fathers…” (pg. 3)

Fr. Jospeh doens’t just apply this to the Fathers as a whole, but also when dealing with these figures on an individual basis. For instance, when discussing St. Cyril of Alexandria’s writings the Old Testament, Fr. Jospeh notes that despite how some academics characterize Cyril as an amoral, scheming politician who is ultimately responsible for the later schism of the Non-Chalcedonians, we must reject these interpretations as the Church-along with more reasonable modern commentators- has decided that St. Cyril is not just a saint, but one of the great doctors of the Church (pg. 93-94). To dismiss his work out of hand would be to put the Church’s judgement into question. Fr. Joseph shows how Orthodox can safely navigate the scholarly landscape without falling into excessive views.

Another strength of How to Read the Holy Fathers is Part 1’s establishment of important foundational beliefs regarding the writings of the Fathers as determined by the Church. I was vaguely aware of a few of these concepts but only sporadically from different sources, and was really glad to seem them included in this work. One is the definition as to who a “Church Father” exactly is. Fr. Joseph demonstrates how contrary to the opinions of some, the age of the Church Fathers did not end with antiquity. Rather, it is ongoing, the “golden chain” of the Church’s tradition continuing to extend as the Body of Christ continues to produce new saints in every age (pg. 14-15). Though they may have lived and written in different time periods, they taught the same doctrines, exhibited the same virtues, and were members of the same Church as one another. As was mentioned earlier, to disregard the Fathers would not just be unwise, but would be fatal to having any proper understanding of our Faith. We cannot be in a “post patristic age” because that age, in a sense, never ended. The Fathers of today carry the same message as the Fathers of yesterday, and will be carried on by the Fathers of tommorow. Fr. Joseph quotes St. Athanasius’s Letter to Serapion which best demonstrates this wisdom: “Let us look at the very tradition, teaching, and faith of the catholic Church from the beginning which the Lord delivered, the Apostles preached, and the Fathers preserved, upon which the Church is founded” (pg. 7).

Aside from showing who the Fathers are, Fr. Jospeh also takes care to identify who the Fathers are not. I especially appreciated his affirmation of the fact that while there can be some utility to their writings, it would be best for Orthodox to avoid those writers who succumbed to heresies later condemned by the Church, such as Origen, Tertullian, and Eusebius (pg. 11-12). Having witnessed in some circles an attempted rehabilitation of heretics and their works (Roman Catholics with Pope Honorius and Orthodox with Origen), Fr. Jospeh was wise to include this pastoral wisdom.

There is also the lesser known fact that Fr. Joseph helps to establish, that being the dogmatic teaching on the hierarchy of sources. Not all Church Father works are equal; As the Church has grown and controversies have arisen, some texts have taken on a greater importance over time, albeit with considerate deliberation on the part of the Church (pg. 63). Fr. Joseph notes how some councils endorsed certain texts, and some writings from a Father took on a greater importance than other texts they compiled (pg. 63, 65). This is especially important not only for understanding how a Father’s views may have changed over the course of their lives, but it also helps when it comes to using the Fathers as a source for theology. St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation will most likely have a grater degree of authority than an isolated quote from one of his letters, or how texts that aren’t as well known or studied shouldn’t be the foundation for deeply held theological beliefs (pg. 65). Recognizing how the Church has interacted with the Fathers and the conclusions She has come to on them is a beneficial discipline for one to develop as an Orthodox Christian.

The last facet of this part of Fr. Joseph’s book is the emphasis on the need to engage with both the Fathers and the books of Holy Scripture. Orthodox Christians are right to push back against the notion that the Fathers are unnecessary due to having the Bible. But we must equally push back against the notion that the writings of the Fathers render a deep familiarity with Scared Scripture unnecessary too:

“The saints swam in the fathomless depths of the Law, Psalms, and Prophets as well as the inspired apostolic documents of the New Covenant. Their imagination was molded by the stories, characters, and themes of God’s self-disclosure to humankind. For us to apprehend the same scriptural light the Fathers discovered, we must likewise be steeped in these verses” (pg. 33)

I have met more than a few catechumens in my day who are obsessed with reading the most obscure works by desert monastics or the elders of the Russian Thebaid, but are practically illiterate when it comes to the Bible. To have a deep knowledge and understanding of the Fathers necessitates a deep knowledge and understanding of Holy Writ, and vice versa. The tendency to speak of a dichotomy between Scripture vs Tradition is not entirely accurate either:

“All authentic Christian doctrine (orthodoxy) and practice (orthopraxy) is based on this divine revelation- whether explicitly or implicitly. Holy Tradition does not represent a parallel body of information but rather an apposite extension of Holy Scripture- it would be best to say Scripture in Tradition, not and. One does not exist outside the other. So to avail ourselves of the Bible’s riches we must probe this dimension of patristic literature and learn how to interpret the Bible as the Fathers do.

All of this points to what I think is arguably the most important aspect of this book, that being the concept of the “salvific imperative” of the Fathers as described by Fr. Joseph starting on page 44.

Understanding how to read the Fathers necessitates answering the question as to why the Fathers wrote what they did to begin with. Many of the famous pillars of Orthodoxy we hold dear were servants of the Church at its higher ecclesiastical levels, either being bishops, deacons, priest, or monastics. Their writings, therefore, possess a deeply pastoral character. Whether undertaking biblical exegesis, doctrinal writings, or reflections on the Divine Liturgy, the Fathers were not writing to be professional theologians, nor for the sake of pure speculation. Rather, as Fr. Joseph points out, they saw the long term impact of adopting the wrong ideas about God, for they lead to vice, schism, and ultimately, the abandonment of Jesus Christ for the worship of an idol made by one’s own hands (pg. 44-45). In other words, the Fathers were writing to save souls, and to protect the faithful from the ravenous wolves in the form of the different heresies and sects that arose which challenged the Faith.

This is a critical insight on Fr. Joseph’s part for two reasons. One, it means that the relevance of the Fathers has not and will not go away. As they were writing to instruct the faithful, much of the same wisdom that was espoused by these Saints then can be just as easily employed for our own benefit now. This doesn’t just apply to the positive aspects of faith and dogma they wrote about, but also applies to the errors they so adamantly rejected. Towards the end of the section on St. Ireneaus from the chapter titled “Apologetics”, Fr. Joseph reveals an important truth, that being “Heresies never die, they are simply repackaged and sold under new names” (pg. 133). Even if we do not encounter pure bred Valentinians or Manichaeans, its more likely than not that we will encounter fragments of their ideas baked into the modernist errors of our day, and having an adequate knowledge of how to respond to these ideas makes reading the Fathers all the more necessary.

But more importantly, the salvific imperative points us to a higher calling. We can’t just read what the Fathers wrote and believe what the Father believed, but instead, we must also live the way the Fathers lived. The Holy Fathers were deeply immersed in every aspect of the Orthodox Christian life; they held to the fasts and the broader ascetic disinclines as prescribed by the Church, attended the services like the Divine Liturgy, and experienced the Sacraments (pg. 31-33). The Fathers are a perfect example of the concept that the Orthodox life is comprehensive; Dogma, spirituality, asceticism, and the sacramental life of the parish are all interconnected, and to lose one is to severely impoverish all the rest:

“Once we begin to identify these connections, they will inform how we understand our entire Christian life: how we undertake asceticism, how we interact with the Divine Liturgy, and how we interpret the works of the Fathers. Because Orthodox Christianity is holistic- each part informing the whole and vice versa- we cannot contemplate the Holy Fathers unless we come to know the entire word they themselves experienced and embodied (pg. 34).

We should be reading the Fathers with the aim of achieving the same goal they sought to achieve, that being theosis (pg. 55). Fr. Joseph profoundly reveals how this idea is at the heart of all of the Fathers’ writings, even if we cannot see it. Reading their works is meant to inspire us to take the paths they did, to ask for God’s help to experience true renewal and to live spiritual lives that emulate the ideals of the Gospels (pg. 55).

I don’t have any major criticisms of Fr. Joseph’s work. That being said, I do think there was one concept he discusses that could have been made more robust.

On page 24, Fr. Jospeh discuss the concept of the “Choir of the Fathers”, that being the idea that while the Fathers wrote in different time periods and under different circumstances, their combined voice proclaims a beautiful harmony that declares the glory of the Triune God (pg. 24).

While this is a correct observation, it is worth noting that the figures Fr. Joseph takes time to highlight over the course of the book are almost all exclusively eastern Fathers, the one exception being St. Irenaeus of Lyon, who was born initially in the East but performed his ministry in the West. I believe that Fr. Joseph could have made his presentation of the choir analogy more convincing had a few more Western patristic writers been focused on in the text. For instance, on page 30, Fr. Joseph quotes St. Vincent of Lerin to discuss his famous rule for following the handed down tradition of the Church based on universality, antiquity and consent, which I have written about previously. Considering how explicitly St. Vincent affirms the importance of adhering to catholic tradition and the role of councils in the life of the Church, and how Fr. Jospeh quotes him explicitly in Part 1, it would have been perfectly natural to have then dedicated a part of one of the chapters to his work in Part 2, perhaps in the chapter titled “Doctrinal Treatises”. This not only would have been a powerful witness to the importance of maintaining the Orthodox tradition, but it would have also helped to bolster the idea that it is Eastern Orthodoxy that maintains the choir of the Fathers in their entirety. Other fathers could have also been mentioned in different parts of the book, such as The Rule of Saint Benedict in the chapter on ascetical writings or St. Gregory the Dialogist’s Moralia in Job for the chapter on Biblical exegesis. Nevertheless, this isn’t a substantial flaw with the book, rather a missed opportunity, and I don’t think it detracts from the book’s value in any way.

Conclusion

I sincerely hope that priests, catechists, and interested lay people read How to Read the Holy Fathers. Fr. Joseph has answered a much needed pastoral need for the life of the Orthodox Church by producing this work, and we would be foolish to not learn from his knowledge of the Faith and his experience as a priest. Fr. Joseph has, in his own way, imbibed the “salvific imperative” of the Fathers that he himself writes about, producing a text to not only deepen the faithful’s knowledge of Orthodox theology, but to help them live better Orthodox lives as a whole. This book gives me hope that Orthodox Christians (myself included) won’t just learn more about the Fathers, but will also learn how to live more like the Fathers themselves.

If you would like to read Fr. Joseph’s book, consider purchasing a copy with this link to support The Poorly Illumined. I would also encourage interested readers to watch these two interviews of Fr. Jospeh Lucas, one being conducted by Seraphim Hamilton, the other by Kyle King.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner.