Living Wisely with the Church Fathers

by Christopher A. Hall

The first centuries of Christianity are like a far country. But despite their foreignness, they hold a treasury of wisdom for living. Early Christians struggled and flourished in a culture that was in love with empire and military power, infatuated with sex and entertainment, tolerant of all gods but hostile to the One. And from this crucible of discipleship they extracted lessons of virtue, faithfulness, and joy in Christ. Christopher Hall takes us to the ancient Mediterranean world, inquiring Christian leaders how to live a good life as a Christ follower. The menu of topics wends its way through wealth and poverty, war and violence, marriage and sexuality, theater and the arena, as well as the harsh realities of persecution and martyrdom. Gathering around Basil or Chrysostom or Augustine, we are instructed anew in the way of discipleship. And as they grapple with issues surprisingly resonant with our own, this cloud of ancient witnesses both surprises and challenges us in the life of faith.

Genres: Theology, Church History, History, Christianity, Christian, Spirituality, Christian Non Fiction

276 pages, Paperback

Published November 7, 2017

About the author

Christopher A. Hall (PhD, Drew University) is chancellor of Eastern University and dean of Palmer Theological Seminary in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, and has authored a number of books. He is an editor at large for Christianity Today and associate editor of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture series.

Reviews

[Jacob Aitken · Rating 5 out of 5]

I approached this book with mixed feelings. On one hand, Christopher Hall is an accomplished scholar on the church fathers. On the other hand, it is published by InterVarsityPress. When IVP usually talks about money, war, and sex, it sometimes sounds like Bernie2020. Fortunately, Hall doesn’t do that. Hall introduces us to the wider framework of the spiritual disciplines, except the Fathers never called it that. They called it “askesis,” athletic training for the soul. Evangelicals have long (and usually sanely) talked about the spiritual disciplines, yet they never connected the spiritual disciplines with the power they have to undo the “passions” (more on that later).

The Church Fathers know that sin is what is wrong with us. That’s really not that profound. The Reformation tradition knows that sin “warps” our dispositions. What the church fathers suggest is the how of sin’s warping our dispositions. Sin warps by the “passions.” The “passions are the vices that cripple our ability to pray and life well” (Hall 17). Interestingly enough, for the early Christians “passion” could mean simply a state of mind. These are the logismoi that function like maggots in rotten meat.

As Hall notes, “The passions, then, throw the faculty of reason ...off balance. They blind the eyes of the mind and cripple the mind’s ability to form a realistic or fitting opinion or judgment regarding a specific ethical question or dilemma” (19-20).

Wealth

Reading the fathers on wealth and poverty can be tricky for a number of reasons. The ancient world and economy is not like America’s. Technology and moveable capital have raised several billion people out of poverty. By contrast, in the ancient world if there was a local drought, the entire region could starve to death. The fathers can teach us about wealth, to be sure, but you can’t apply all of their statements to our world today in a 1:1 fashion.

War

While the fathers might have been unanimous in condemning luxury, they were not one voice on war. The earlier writers--Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius--did condemn the military. Military life was openly pagan, so that isn’t surprising. Augustine, and to a lesser degree Athanasius, understood that after Constantine the military didn’t have to be openly pagan.

Sex

These two chapters are worth the price of the book. The fathers’ usually negative comments about sex in marriage have to be understood in their changing context. Rome was a sexually charged society and women were often viewed as objects. With that said, fathers such as Chrysostom represent a more balanced view on the subject.

Like “passions,” the word “desire” doesn’t mean for the fathers what it means for us. Thus we see Clement saying, “He ought not to have a sexual desire for his wife, to whom he has a duty to show Christian love” (Stromateis 3.7.58). Does he mean when the couple has sex they should not have desire but some sort of Buddhist-like transcending of desire? Not exactly. By desire Clement would have meant “the self’s blazing furnace and the power it is generating” (Hall 135). It is the self that is warped. Therefore, even in marriage, it is possible to project sinful desires upon one’s spouse and treat him/her as a sexual object. That’s what Clement is opposing.

Hall illustrates the shallowness of modern life by summarizing the non-plot of Seinfeld. All of them are empty humans. “They are emotionally and ethically stunted.” What do the passions writ large look like? They look like an episode of Seinfeld. The fathers, by contrast, call us to aptheia. Apathy for the fathers was not a blase uncaring. Rather, it was when you had mastered self-control and were able to act spontaneously to God’s law. It was love purified. As Hall notes, the passionate person “habitually misidentifies what is worth our love, commitment, and attention” (141).

Learning to Live a Good Life

Hall, following his mentor Thomas Oden, notes that askesis is necessary if one is going to grow as a Christian. You probably can’t do the ascetic practices of a 4th century monk. But what would it look like? Hall sketches some sort of outline following the practice of Anthony the Great.

Ascesis is just working out for your soul. You are training the soul to discipline the body and even call forth its natural strength. This is what neurological science is noticing today about the brain’s neuroplasticity. Antony:

>A specific learning place (for him, it was the desert)
>meaningful work (usually manual labor)
>Vigilant, consistent prayer life.
>Regularlized sleep patterns (In many ways this is most important for killing the passions).
>A simple disciplined diet (I used to eat oatmeal for breakfast and lunch for a year; it’s not fun but it works).
> Regular times of fasting. The Eastern tradition fasted at minimum on Wednesdays and Fridays. Nothing magical about that but it tunes your body to a rhythm.
>Attentiveness to emotions, thoughts, memories.
>Deep immersion in Scripture. This isn’t a cliche. They had the Psalms memorized. They did so by chanting. Chanting.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

My introduction to patristics came through the Desert Fathers. I picked up a book (I can't remember if I read Helen Wadell's or Benedicta Ward's collection first) and discovered there compelling voices from another age. They were ethereal and strange, sometimes legalistic, but always thoughtful. They offered a compelling vision of the spiritual life. Since then I've read more widely the church fathers, exploring the saints of both the Christian East and West. Because their time was so different from our own, and not so different, I think they have a tremendous capacity to speak prophetically into our age.

Christopher Hall is an excellent guide to the thought world of the fathers. He is the associate editor of IVP's Ancient Commentary on Scripture and his newest book is the fourth and final volume of his Church Father's series (previously published, Reading the Bible with the Church Fathers, Learning Theology with the Church Fathers, and Worshipping with the Church Fathers).  While these other books examine the exegesis, doctrine and devotional life of the Fathers, Living Wisely with the Church Fathers digs into what the Fathers have to teach us about the good life  and 'living with a well-ordered heart.' It examines the moral teaching of the early church and their perspective of culture. This volume explores topics like:

Persecution and Martyrdom
Wealth and Poverty
War and Military Service
Sex and relationships
Marriage
Abortion
Entertainment

But Hall is not just interested in telling you what the fathers thought about these things.  He's inviting us to engage in conversation with the church fathers and see what wisdom they have to offer us.  There are clear differences between their age and our own, but their outsider perspective gives them insights worth paying attention to.

For example, the global church today faces martyrdom and violence daily. In my comfy Western context, I am persecuted only when my barista tells me happy holidays and there is no Christmas tree on our holiday cup. After describing the Church Father's experience of martyrdom and examining Origen's theology of martyrdom, Hall points out how much of the world would benefit from the church fathers' insights:

The church fathers' own experience of martyrdom—I think of Polycarp, Ignatius of Antioch, Cyprian and many others—will encourage and inspire those Christians in our modern setting suffering at the hands of groups such as ISIS and Boko Haram. The thousands of Christians who daily experience threats, violence, and death at the hands of persecutors have learned, in Susan Berman's words, "that something matters more than life," and a study of the church fathers' thoughts on martyrdom can further and deepen this awareness. (54).

While Western Christians do not experience the threat of martyrdom, the church fathers call us, similarly, to have a prophetic stance in our allegiance to Christ:

If we recall that the central issue for the ancient martyr was not suffering but allegiance, things may clarify for the modern, Western Christian. Ancient martyrs suffered and died because they refused to bow the knee to the Roman demand to worship the emperor as a God. Early Christians realized—like many martyrs of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries—that their primary allegiance and loyalty must be to Christ, not to the demands of competing political and religious ideologies.

In the United States the issue of allegiance—of ultimate allegiance—always faces the Christian, though it is often not recognized. Our difficulty in facing this problem clearly and honestly is surely related to the cultural pressure to remain loyal to American values—political, economic, and social—even when those values contradict or conflict with the values of Christ's kingdom (56).

Similarly, the fathers' attitudes towards wealth and violence, call us to a countercultural prophetic stance. Generosity to the poor, and moderation, proportion and discretion with wealth, stand in stark contrast to our commercial and materialistic age (88-90).  In America, veterans are valued because of their sacrifice and service to our country, but the early church opposed military service because of its inherent violence and Christ's command to love our enemies. With Constantine and the writings of Augustine, views on the legitimacy of the military service shifted, especially as Christians became the dominant power in society (126-127). So here too, the fathers provide a perspective that is radically different from our own and gets us to re-examine some of our thinking on these matters.

Yet, sometimes the dialogue goes both ways. Hall did little to convince me that everything the fathers said and taught on human sexuality was good (chapter 4). They were all complementarians, majorly misogynistic (by today's standards), and just uncomfortable with sex in general. Some of their presuppositions and prejudices, I am really quite happy to leave in the past. But they lived in an era, like our own,  that was full of both sexual license and brokenness. That they held up the paths of fidelity in celibacy and marriage as a way to train the passions and navigate toward a well-ordered, embodied life remains instructive for us.

Hall closes chapter 5, with a brief overview of the fathers' views on same-sex relationships. "I do not know of a single church father who expresses approval of sexually active homosexual relationships. From very early documentation such as the Didache, to later writers such as Clement of Alexandria and Lactantius, opposition to same-sex relationships is uniform" (172).  Hall brings their prohibition of homosexual practice into conversation with our contemporary understanding of sexual orientation. He cites Wesley Hill who self-identifies as gay but is committed to a lifestyle of celibate singleness as a way which honors God's design for human flourishing (174). Hall's brief look at same-sex relationships won't be satisfying for every reader, but with Hill as his example, he does demonstrate that it is possible to follow the fathers' example in this area with integrity.

I found Hall's articulation of the church fathers' views on abortion fascinating (chapter 6). Hall describes the fathers as universally opposed to the idea of abortion on demand, and abortion as birth control (they also didn't really like birth control).  The fetus was not seen by them as part of the woman's body, but as a neighbor and developing image-bearer of God (189). Some, like Augustine, would allow for therapeutic abortions (though clearly, these are never ideal) (188, 189).  Hall writes:

From the perspective of the fathers, the status of the developing fetus as God's image bearer was the overriding consideration in their ethical analysis of abortion and its consequences. They believed the fetus is a human being. Indeed, the developing baby is a dependent neighbor who is to be nurtured and cared for from the moment of conception by the entire Christian community. If the fetus is our neighbor, and if the heart of God's law is love for God and neighbor, the canon law's strictness and severity concerning abortion makes sense. To take innocent life—whether in war or in failing to protect neighbors who lack the ability to care for themselves, whether in the womb or outside it—is treated with appropriate seriousness by the ancient church.

So while the church fathers were clearly pro-life, their prohibition on militarism and violence meant that they were committed to a consistent pro-life ethic, from the womb to the tomb.

In chapter 7, Hall looks at the church fathers' reaction against entertainment, particularly entertainment that was violent and sexually exploitative. Hall acknowledges their critique but also notes that good art can portray the beauty of relationships and sexual love or the sadness and horror of violence and brokenness. So Hall agrees with the fathers that we shouldn't feed our appetite for sin with mind-numbing entertainment, but he isn't as dismissive, as they sometimes were, of the Arts.

There is no substitute for reading the church fathers for themselves. Hall's book isn't a bathroom reader designed to give you a little trivia of a bygone era. Hall wants to send you back to Chrysostom, Augustine, Origin, Jerome,  Irenaeus, and Basil. This is designed, like the other books in the series, to show us the valuable contribution the church fathers have made to the life of the church, and invite us to sit down with them and talk.

Of course, the limits of a book like this is the thought of the fathers is simplified and generalized.  Hall covers a lot of ground in 236 pages, so he summarizes a few main thinkers on a topic and gives an overview of their context, but he does not have the space to delve too deep into their thought or works. The spirituality of the Desert Fathers is what first stoked my interest in patristics, but they are not much represented here (though certainly, they had quite a bit to say on sexuality, the passions and the pursuit of the good life).  So this is a good book, and suggestive, but it is an introductory one, appropriate for lay readers and students. I give this four stars. - ★★★★

Notice of material connection:  I received a copy of this book from IVP Academic in exchange for my honest review

 

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: An exploration of what we might learn from the church fathers about lives well lived, touching on everything from martyrdom to entertainment.

We turn to a variety of sources to figure out how to live well, sources ranging from lists on websites, to self-help books, to mentors and "life coaches," to the scriptures. Christopher Hall, in the concluding volume of a four volume series, explores what the early fathers of the church, speaking out of a very different context than ours, can teach us about living wisely. Summarizing this four-part project and the focus of this final volume, Hall writes:

"What did these ancient Christians--whose thoughts and practices continue to be read, pondered, discussed, debated, and embraced today--think about the Bible, God, worship, and prayer? More importantly for this book, how did the fathers answer a very specific question: How can God's image bearer learn to live a good life, a life nourished by the values of the kingdom of God, a life of deep and lasting human flourishing, a life filled with love for God and neighbor? If, as Athanasius puts it, transgression has 'taken hold' of human beings, and 'natural corruption' now characterizes the human condition, how can God's image bearers be made right again--made right not only in our relationship to God but in relationship to one another and to the entire created order?" (p. 2)

An introduction explores the context of the fathers and the kinds of issues they confront, particularly our moral disposition and passion, concluding with the kinds of questions we might ask ourselves in the course of this study. Hall then addresses seven topics on which the fathers taught and their relevance to us:

1. Martyrdom
2. Wealth and Poverty
3. War and Military Service
4. Sex and the Dynamics of Desire
5. Life as Male and Female, and the Goodness and Beauty of Marriage
6. Life and Death
7. Entertainment

What Hall helps us appreciate is the distinctive message of the fathers, who speak the counsels of God from a very different cultural context than our own. For example, martyrdom was an ever present threat, one that could be avoided by an offering to the emperor, an easy ritual. Many refused, and died, even as is occurring in many parts of the world. A life of peace for Christians, assumed in the West, has often not been our lot and raises the question of whether there is any cost to our discipleship and where we might place our ultimate allegiance.

On wealth and poverty, Hall recounts a sermon of Chrysostom on Lazarus and the rich man and the issue of whether we live with discretion with our wealth, using it to bless and thus fulfilling the purpose of wealth in our lives and others. Hall helps us understand the pacifism of the early church, the uneasy change to more of a "just war" perspective post-Constantine, and challenges us to wrestle with the sometimes unequivocal refusal of the church to kill. 

The following two chapters focus on sexuality, gender, and marriage. We often consider the ancients terribly repressed. Hall observes that contrary to the body-denying nature of gnosticism, the fathers recognized the realities of sexual desire, both how this might harm, and the goodness of marriage and marital sexuality. He deals honestly with the problems of linking celibacy and the priesthood in the west. He also reminds us of the significant roles of women, including Macrina, who might be numbered the "Fourth Cappadocian." Hill also points out the uncompromising opposition of the fathers to any form of homosexual intimacy.

One of the briefest, yet most pointed chapters lays out the strongly affirmative life ethic from cradle to grave in a society where abortion was commonly practiced, children abandoned, as well as the sick and dying in times of plague. The church adamantly refused to abort, rescued abandoned children and nursed the sick, at risk to themselves. Finally, in a challenge to our modern entertainment culture, often fascinated with gore, we learn of the refusal of the church to join the celebration of the violent gladiatorial games, recognizing how such things might create "dead zones" in our own lives.

The last chapter is truly a capstone, returning to the fundamental questions of how we live well. We learn of how the fathers diagnosed our problem of disordered loves and the disciplines of askesis that allow the rhythms of grace to reorder our affections in love for God and neighbor.

This work plainly whets our appetites for the fathers, and their counter-cultural message that may re-orient our perspectives and affections. Perhaps this was a part of earlier volumes, but I would have welcomed an appendix or suggested readings at the end of each chapter to go deeper with the fathers. One might track down ideas from the notes but recommendations of good editions and starting points could be helpful. 

Hall has done us a great service in helping us to hear the distinctive voices of the fathers -- their writings and sermons. Not all the good books have been written in the last ten years! There is a durable heritage of wise thought rooted in scripture directed toward a concern good pastors down the ages have always had--how to help God's people enjoy God, love their neighbors and live well.

____________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

[Collin Scribner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hall sets sail on a course to explore the early church fathers’ thoughts and wisdom on several subjects, from marriage to entertainment. He writes with the Christian reader in mind who, perhaps while enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate, wants to know why everyone keeps mentioning this “Augustine” guy. I wasn’t warmed by any hot chocolate while reading, but I felt deeply encouraged and warmed by the profound wisdom and insight of the early church on nearly every subject Hall covered. This was actually one of the most helpful, thought-provoking, and encouraging books I have read so far as part of my required seminary reading, and I would heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to begin to engage with some of the early church fathers' ideas (whether or not they want to enjoy with hot chocolate in hand).

[Christian · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book that I truly enjoyed reading from start to finish!

Here are some excerpts that struck me while reading:

"Consider for instance, the materialism that characterizes North American culture, and compare it to that of the Roman world. Gregory of Nyssa, in his analysis of Roman materialism, links the desire for more and more stuff to the dulling effect of the passions on the human mind and especially on our memory. Too quickly we forget, Gregory believes, that everything begins with God’s grace, the grace that richly offers human fulfillment to God’s image bearers. Forgetfulness of God’s grace and gifts foments a decline into materialism, where the pursuit of more and more stuff becomes the end all of life. As Gregory puts it, a sinful image bearer left to himself “is almost completely involved in the pursuit of material things.”
- Pgs. 18-19

"Chrysostom teaches that key virtues such as humility arise in the human heart as God’s image bearers contemplate how quickly life passes. When a Christian says goodbye to a loved one whose life has drawn to a close, she naturally feels grief. Yet, if she is willing to interpret the death of her loved one through the meaning the cross and resurrection of Christ offers, she can learn valuable lessons. Among others, we will notice how brief life is and perceive the danger of thinking and living as though life in this present world will never end."

- Pg. 21

"For all ancient Christians, baptism was the entryway into the church and a relationship with Christ. Through baptism Christians were marked as Christ’s own. The baptized were joined to Christ’s body and became part of his family; they were his renewed, restored, regenerated, re-created image bearers.
Did the marks of baptism and the accompanying seal of chrismation, though, guarantee that the behavior of Christian image bearers would automatically change, that love for God, one’s neighbor, or one’s enemies would immediately, effortlessly appear? The church fathers knew better. To live a good life, the church fathers contended, involves strenuous effort fueled by grace. For the fathers, learning to love is far from a passive affair.
The fathers understood that vigorous training is not divorced from God’s grace but empowered by God’s grace. All believed that Christians had been reborn in baptism; now by God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, these infants in Christ would have to grow up."

- Pgs. 218-219

"The Word made himself ‘bearer of the flesh’ in order that human beings might become bearers of the Spirit.”
- St. Athanasius, (from On the Incarnation and Against the Arians), Pg. 230

Truly a treasure trove of how a Christian can truly live out his/her life on a daily basis given the theological foundations provided by the Church Fathers of the first few centuries of Christianity. Definitely a book worth reading by all Christians.

[Tim Michiemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9 Stars

Christopher Halls Living Wisely with the Church Fathers is a valuable addition to his series of books on the Church Fathers. In this book, he answers the question "How does one live a good life?" from the perspectives of early church fathers like Origen, Chrysostom, Cyprian, and Augustine. Hall explains that the fathers viewed a good life as consisting of love for God and neighbor. As well, the fathers acknowledge that because of sin Christian's desires are "disordered" and are reordered by "askesis" or "spiritual disciplines" fueled by God's sovereign grace. In each chapter, Hall covers a separate issue within Christian living; (1) martyrdom, (2) wealth & poverty, (3) war, (4) sex, (5) marriage, (6) life and death, and (7) entertainment. Hall covers a wide breadth of the fathers' views on each of these subjects, and how they viewed the good life in comparison to the pagan idolatry of the Roman world.

The strengths of Hall's book are the absolute breadth of fathers that he covers. He does not go deep, but he most definitely goes wide. Hall’s book proves itself and an extremely helpful entry point for understanding how the church fathers viewed the good life. One major weakness of this book is that Hall does not sufficiently develop the concept of "askesis.” Hall does a good job of showing what the good life looks like, according to the church fathers, but spends a measly 2 pages discussing what "askesis" or "spiritual practices" should look like considering the life of Antony of Egypt (an extreme ascetic). I think it would have helped if Hall spent a bit more time at the end of each chapter explaining a practical spiritual discipline that corresponds to each chapter's topic.

But overall, this is a good book and a good entry point to learning about the church fathers, with a specific emphasis on Christian living. For anyone well-versed in the church fathers, many of the topics will be familiar, but Hall gives many of the familiar topics in Patristics fresh new eyes. Anyone eager to learn more about living well and learning from the fathers would do well to start here.

[Phoebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was on my Lenten Reading List in 2018: https://beingincommunity.com/what-im-...

This book is a treasure that I will be returning to on many, many occasions. I've made notes and highlights on almost every page. What a great source of wisdom for the ages!

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been waiting for this book- the last in Christopher Hall's Church Father's series- for several years, so I was overjoyed when I found out that it was finally out. The project has been going on since the late nineties which is when I picked up the first book- Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers. That book proved extremely influential for me because it started me on an interest in patristics which stays with me over twenty years later.

This volume looks at the practical lessons of the Church Fathers, so looks at such subjects as the good life, sexuality, entertainment, business, monasticism and such. Hall doesn't so much try to reconstruct the past (he does that, of course) as try to interpret the present through the lens of the Fathers. That is what caught my attention with his writing and, in a very minor way, is the way that I like to approach reading the Fathers too. So, Hall will weave in contemporary issues with close readings of a Church Father or two. That approach gives a different and thoughtful perspective and one that I find helpful.

Each of this series can stand on their own, but I do recommend the whole series because of the quality of the writing and thought. Christopher Hall is one of those rare academics who can write engaging on what looks like abstruse topics for laypeople. If you have any interest in the early centuries of the Church, this is a series you'll want to read.

[Matt Pitts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found some sections more interesting than others, but on the whole a fascinating and helpful book. Where else can you get so much information about the church fathers in one places without doing years of reading and research?

[Wagner Floriani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well written and enjoyable from beginning to end. Hall does a tremendous job introducing the values that shaped daily life in ancient Christianity, and thoughtfully challenges modern readers to consider their own cultural blindspots. The consistent and lengthy engagement with primary literature is what makes this work such a helpful introduction to the Fathers.

[Elaine Yan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris has made the Church fathers accessible to us, so that their thoughts and lives help us see and think more clearly in our times. I am surprised by how much wisdom they have for us now. This book is both relevant and challenging.

[Collin Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great introduction to the church father’s thoughts on martyrdom, money, war, desire, marriage, abortion, entertainment and discipline. The author uses quotes from the fathers throughout while giving a lot of good commentary of his own. Having just read Leithart’s book on Constantine, I can’t help but wonder if this authors portrayal of a completely pacifist church before Constantine may be a little lopsided, but he is dealing with the surviving written sources only here so it may be justified.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Living Wisely with the Church Fathers” is Christopher Hall’s 4th and final book introducing the writing and thought of the church fathers. This was my favorite volume of the four mainly because Mr. Hall takes up issues which are just as relevant today as they were two millennium ago. How do we handle money as Christians? What did the early church think about abortion and homosexuality? Can Christians be part of the military? Mr. Hall relates what the church fathers thought about all these issues and more.

One of the interesting things about these topics is that, on some issues like abortion and homosexuality, the church fathers were very consistently united in their position; on others, like military service, there was a wide array of opinions. In addition, almost without exception, the church fathers thought widely and deeply on all of these issues. They never took positions that they hadn’t thought through carefully.

The section of the book that hit me the hardest was Mr. Hall’s discussion of what the church fathers thought about money. Anyone who can be in our materialistic culture and read through this section without being convicted, probably isn’t listening. The church fathers felt without exception, that God gave an excess of money to individuals so that they could turn around and share it with the poor, not hoard it. Yes, they understood the wisdom of saving money, but all of them saw money as a gift from God and should be used in God’s service. Care of the poor was a consistent concern for all church fathers.

Another section that I really found helpful was the church fathers writing on marriage, relationships, and sexual issues. At times some of them can be seemingly harsh. Here is Clement on relationships:

“If a man marries in order to have children he ought to practice self-control. He ought not to have a sexual desire even for his wife, to whom he has a duty to show Christian love. He ought to produce children by a reverent, disciplined act of will.”

Now, this sort of attitude is not one which your wife will probably be very impressed with, but Mr. Hall wisely points out that Clement (and all of the other church fathers) must be understood in the totality of their writings, rather than cherry pick funny sounding quotes like the one above. When we do read all of Clement we find a very good, balanced, deeply thought out theology of relationships and marriage.

An excellent book that I very much enjoyed. Mr. Hall knocked this one out of the park.

[Dawson Romines · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, a book I enjoyed very much. Its best feature is its broad provision of sources on many different subjects. It’s great to hear from Chrysostom, Augustine, Clement, Lactantius, and the rest. I also enjoyed the framing of the work as a gymnast’s pursuit of virtue and the good life in Christ.

That said, I had to rate this lower because of some of his takes on modern issues. He devotes one section to explaining that homosexual desire isn’t a sin, but simply a cross that some Christians must bear by rejecting the desire. He correctly condemns homosexual behavior as sin, but entirely misses the mark by refusing to acknowledge the desire as sin as well. If a man wants to murder his neighbor, is that hateful disposition of his heart merely “a cross he has to bear”? If a man wants to rob banks, is he ok to call himself a “bank-robber Christian who wrestles with a desire to rob banks”? No! Even the inclination of the heart is a matter of sin and righteousness. You don’t have to be (indeed *cannot be*) a “gay Christian” anymore than you have to be (or can be) a “bitter Christian” or a “greedy Christian.” If you have the Spirit of Christ in you, your heart (your will, desires, and thoughts) truly can be cleansed and made new. Sin/sinful desire is not a cross for you to bear, it is the thing which must die on the cross and be left in the grave!

I also don’t appreciate how in his concluding chapter, though he defends him a bit, he claims Chrysostom (and Luther) planted the seeds of antisemitism that led to things such as the Holocaust. Criticism of the sins of the Jewish people is not ‘antisemitism,’ it’s honesty.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final entry in this four book series on the Church Fathers is a treasury of gold. The book wants to show how the wisdom of the Church Fathers can help us live our Christian lives. Each chapter covers a different topic, martyrdom, wealth and poverty, war and military service, sex, marriage, abortion, entertainment, and the good life. Depending on your interests some of these chapters will grab you more than others.

The chapters themselves give you the highlights of the fathers. Instead of searching through yourself trying to find something helpful or interesting that they have said you get it all. This is the primary benefit of this series. You get the benefits of the fathers without having to dig through the junk. Especially in this volume where you get to see their views on this still relevant topics. Their overwhelming condemnation of abortion, their condemnation of violence, and their condemnation on those who ignore the poor are vital messages the church needs to hear.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

As the French would say: fantastique. A wonderful book with great sourcing and a wealth of knowledge about how the early church fathers dealt with social issues in their day and it covers the entirety of the patristics period in its scope.

This book got me to rethink some of my positions and really challenged me in some way. Hall does a great job of synthesizing all this info and gives ideas of how to handle it but never tells the reader what to believe. He treats the fathers like the fathers, "this is what they said, you can listen, you cannot, but you should at least wrestle with it."

The chapters that were especially focused on entertainment and on violence were important for me personally.

I really think every Christian would be served by reading this book and it is very approachable with little background knowledge needed. I'm definitely going to be looking at his other books in this series.

[Ted · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last in a 4 volume series, which overall I enjoyed, though this was probably the least favorite of the 4 books. No particular reason except that perhaps in my retirement some of the issues he raises in terms of morality are not part of my life and since I'm not pastoring anymore, I'm not dealing with these issues. Hall writes to try to make the Church Fathers more accessible to Protestant evangelicals, which I think he does quite well.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book more. I loved the first three books. But there's just something about the writing style I can't get past. It's too conversational, too wordy, and borders on patronizing:

"What would the fathers say about this review? If we could talk to them, what would they say? Would they give us good advice? Let's listen carefully and investigate how they might write a review of this book on living, loving, and acting rightly in the world as Christians."

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hall writes with a special grace about the early church, which shines in this volume on patristic ethics. The chapters on celibacy, marriage, and finding the good life in God are particularly delightful. It's a fount of lived wisdom from faithful people, and if that's not what my whole vocation is about, I don't know what I'm doing.

[Bill Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

So helpful! God has been proven wise in those He built the church. We will be proven wise if we build our lives on their wisdom and testimony. The Christian life is “strenuous effort fueled by grace.”

“Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭9‬:‭25‬ ‭NIV‬‬

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading about the Church Father's views on a variety of everyday issues from wealth and poverty to entertainment. There were many times I felt certain sentences were speaking directly to me. I highly recommend this book.

[Josh Trice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hall engages many topics (including martyrdom, poverty, war, relationships, marriage and entertainment to name a few) exclusively from the point of view of the church fathers. Great thinkers such as Basil, Tertullian and Augustine provide the reader with rich perspective on what early Christianity looked like.
This is a cool read, especially in tracing modern thought through the ages, as well as exploring 'new' ways of looking at and engaging the world.

[Cate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful in training and teaching, and even just a tiny bit encouraging.

[Stefan Äng · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to patristic thought on key ethical issues.

[Carol Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/...

[Anthony Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful introduction to listening to the wisdom of the early Church.

[Neh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Jacob Aitkin's review.

[Kevin Comfort · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christianity, and Christians, need to go back to the early church not to form strategies for church growth or enhanced theologies, but to relearn how to live the faith.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview. A bit simplistic. The chapter on war seemed unnecessary.

[John Funnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely superb

A wonderfully accessible and practical assessment of the Church Fathers views on todays challenges.