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How the Fathers Read the Bible: Scripture, Liturgy, and the Early Church
“You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me.”—John 5:39
It takes some real imagination to go back fifteen or twenty centuries to an age when ordinary people didn’t have Bibles. But if we don’t put in that work, we’ll misunderstand the early Christians completely.
The early Christians didn’t live in our world, and their encounters with Scripture happened in one main the liturgy. That was where they heard Scripture. And just as important, that was where they heard Scripture interpreted.
In How the Fathers Read the Scripture, Liturgy, and the Early Church, Mike Aquilina takes readers back to the first centuries of Church life to show how the liturgy became the home of—and the interpretative lens for—Scripture. Aquilina shows how, both then and now, Scripture is only understood through the life of the Church—and in particular, through the liturgy.
It takes some real imagination to go back fifteen or twenty centuries to an age when ordinary people didn’t have Bibles. But if we don’t put in that work, we’ll misunderstand the early Christians completely.
The early Christians didn’t live in our world, and their encounters with Scripture happened in one main the liturgy. That was where they heard Scripture. And just as important, that was where they heard Scripture interpreted.
In How the Fathers Read the Scripture, Liturgy, and the Early Church, Mike Aquilina takes readers back to the first centuries of Church life to show how the liturgy became the home of—and the interpretative lens for—Scripture. Aquilina shows how, both then and now, Scripture is only understood through the life of the Church—and in particular, through the liturgy.
- GenresScripture
188 pages, Kindle Edition
Published February 7, 2022
15 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Mike Aquilina
126 books112 followersMike Aquilina is author or editor of more than thirty books, including The Fathers of the Church, The Mass of the Early Christians, and A Year with the Church Fathers. He has co-hosted eight series that air on the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN). He has co-authored books with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., and theologian Scott Hahn. He is past editor of New Covenant magazine and The Pittsburgh Catholic newspaper. He appears weekly on Sirius Radio's "Sonrise Morning Show." Mike and his wife, Terri, have six children, who are the subject of his book Love in the Little Things.
In 2011 Mike was a featured presenter of the U.S. Bishops' Diocesan Educational/Catechetical Leadership Institute. He also wrote the USCCB's theological reflection for Catechetical Sunday in 2011.
His reviews, essays and journalism have appeared in many journals, including First Things, Touchstone, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, and Catholic Heritage. He contributed work on early Christianity to the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought.
Mike is a also poet whose works have appeared in U.S. literary journals and have been translated into Polish and Spanish. He shared songwriting credits with Grammy Award-winner Dion DiMucci on the forthcoming album "Tank Full of Blues."
In 2011 Mike was a featured presenter of the U.S. Bishops' Diocesan Educational/Catechetical Leadership Institute. He also wrote the USCCB's theological reflection for Catechetical Sunday in 2011.
His reviews, essays and journalism have appeared in many journals, including First Things, Touchstone, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, National Catholic Register, and Catholic Heritage. He contributed work on early Christianity to the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought.
Mike is a also poet whose works have appeared in U.S. literary journals and have been translated into Polish and Spanish. He shared songwriting credits with Grammy Award-winner Dion DiMucci on the forthcoming album "Tank Full of Blues."
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 25, 2022
I have read and reviewed many books by Mike Aquilina, I have benefited from each. I believe this is the fourteenth volume I have read by him, and I have read a few others that he edited, or that he was the general editor for the series. I have many of his other volumes on my ‘to be read’ list. This book was another excellent read from his masterful pen. I have said it before about his works and say it again, this is one of those books that every Catholic, every Christian should read. The description of the book states:
““You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me.”—John 5:39
It takes some real imagination to go back fifteen or twenty centuries to an age when ordinary people didn’t have Bibles. But if we don’t put in that work, we’ll misunderstand the early Christians completely.
The early Christians didn’t live in our world, and their encounters with Scripture happened in one main context: the liturgy. That was where they heard Scripture. And just as important, that was where they heard Scripture interpreted.
In How the Fathers Read the Bible: Scripture, Liturgy, and the Early Church, Mike Aquilina takes readers back to the first centuries of Church life to show how the liturgy became the home of—and the interpretative lens for—Scripture. Aquilina shows how, both then and now, Scripture is only understood through the life of the Church—and in particular, through the liturgy.”
The Sections and chapters in this book are:
Introduction
1. The Bible In The Liturgy And The Liturgy In The Bible
2. The Apostolic Fathers
St. Clement Of Rome
St. Barnabas
3. The Apologists And The Fighters
St. Justin Martyr
Tertullian
Lactantius
4. The Explosion In Alexandria
St. Clement Of Alexandria
Origen
St. Athanasius
5. Eusebius And The Victory Of The Gospel
6. A Song From The East
Aphrahat
St. Ephrem The Syrian
7. St. John Chrysostom
8. St. Jerome
9. St. Ambrose
10. St. Augustine
11. Into The Dark Ages
St. Gregory the Great
St. John Damascene
Epilogue
I only highlighted one passage my first time through this book, I was using adaptive technology to listen to it. And would have marked more but I did not want to stop. I have plans to go back and reread it making detailed notes and highlights. But that one highlight was:
“We search the Scriptures all the time. Google or Duck-DuckGo is here to help. We can just send a search engine off to find whatever we want in the Bible. Every conceivable translation is in our pockets, along with millions and millions of words of commentaries to help us understand—or misunderstand—what we’re reading. Even before the age of the Internet, the Bible was everywhere. If you checked into a hotel, the Gideons had been there before you and made sure there was a Bible in the nightstand by the bed. Street preachers kept boxes of New Testaments to give away. You could get a cheap paperback Bible for a couple of dollars, or a lavishly illustrated coffee-table edition. It was slightly harder to find Catholic Bibles than Protestant Bibles, but only slightly—you didn’t have to work very hard.”
Mike is a master of many subjects and this draws two of them together. He is a modern day master of the Church Fathers, the early Church, Mary. With over 30 works to his name he is an expert. And many Catholics and other Christians recognize his expertise in these two fields. Some of Mike’s works are written for the general lay person, and some are very academic. This one is in the middle. I would not recommend this volume for someone in High school, but honestly any adult could read it and be blessed by the reading. The introduction ends with these words:
“Today we can read volume after volume of commentary on Scripture by the Fathers of the Church. But we forget that those commentaries had a context. Almost without exception, the Fathers were men who had congregations to look after. They wrote their commentaries and their interpretations because they had a flock who needed to know what Scripture meant in their own lives.
Writing about Scripture was not an academic exercise for the Fathers. It was vital to get the interpretation right because souls depended on it—souls that had been committed to their care. Sometimes they were writing directly for their congregations, as St. Ephrem did when he made Scripture sing for them (see chapter 6). Other times they wrote to inform or correct fellow teachers, as St. Augustine and St. Jerome wrote to each other, sometimes vigorously disagreeing. But always they wrote to answer the one essential question: What shall the people be taught in church?
It was not always an easy question to answer. But it had to be answered. Christ gave his Church the mission of leading his people to salvation. That responsibility fell heavily on the shoulders of her teachers, who felt the full weight of it and put their whole hearts into the job. Piece by piece, century by century, they worked out the implications of Scripture for us.
Today, with the Bible on every smartphone, we can easily forget that the Church is the home of Scripture. Turning back to the Fathers helps us remember that there is no Scripture without the Church. And to get into the proper frame of mind, it will help to imagine ourselves at Mass right now.”
What Mike does in this volume is bring home the centrality of the bible to scriptures, to the early church, to the mass, and ultimately to us and our participation in liturgy and the mass. Mike serves as our guide and director through the fathers. But he is not a stuffy academic talking about long dead people and beliefs. He writes from a place of personal experience and faith. And that faith shines through this work. And his faith will help shed light on the fathers, and on our own faith.
This is another work of great scholarship. It is an engaging read. And Aquilina is one of the greatest scholars of the early church and world of our times if not all time. As Saint Paul said in Corinthians about milk and solid food, this volume is solid food for our spiritual nourishment. It is an excellent book to read for your personal sanctity and growth. I recommend this volume. I am certain if you pick it up, you will not be disappointed!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2022 Catholic Reading Plan!
““You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me.”—John 5:39
It takes some real imagination to go back fifteen or twenty centuries to an age when ordinary people didn’t have Bibles. But if we don’t put in that work, we’ll misunderstand the early Christians completely.
The early Christians didn’t live in our world, and their encounters with Scripture happened in one main context: the liturgy. That was where they heard Scripture. And just as important, that was where they heard Scripture interpreted.
In How the Fathers Read the Bible: Scripture, Liturgy, and the Early Church, Mike Aquilina takes readers back to the first centuries of Church life to show how the liturgy became the home of—and the interpretative lens for—Scripture. Aquilina shows how, both then and now, Scripture is only understood through the life of the Church—and in particular, through the liturgy.”
The Sections and chapters in this book are:
Introduction
1. The Bible In The Liturgy And The Liturgy In The Bible
2. The Apostolic Fathers
St. Clement Of Rome
St. Barnabas
3. The Apologists And The Fighters
St. Justin Martyr
Tertullian
Lactantius
4. The Explosion In Alexandria
St. Clement Of Alexandria
Origen
St. Athanasius
5. Eusebius And The Victory Of The Gospel
6. A Song From The East
Aphrahat
St. Ephrem The Syrian
7. St. John Chrysostom
8. St. Jerome
9. St. Ambrose
10. St. Augustine
11. Into The Dark Ages
St. Gregory the Great
St. John Damascene
Epilogue
I only highlighted one passage my first time through this book, I was using adaptive technology to listen to it. And would have marked more but I did not want to stop. I have plans to go back and reread it making detailed notes and highlights. But that one highlight was:
“We search the Scriptures all the time. Google or Duck-DuckGo is here to help. We can just send a search engine off to find whatever we want in the Bible. Every conceivable translation is in our pockets, along with millions and millions of words of commentaries to help us understand—or misunderstand—what we’re reading. Even before the age of the Internet, the Bible was everywhere. If you checked into a hotel, the Gideons had been there before you and made sure there was a Bible in the nightstand by the bed. Street preachers kept boxes of New Testaments to give away. You could get a cheap paperback Bible for a couple of dollars, or a lavishly illustrated coffee-table edition. It was slightly harder to find Catholic Bibles than Protestant Bibles, but only slightly—you didn’t have to work very hard.”
Mike is a master of many subjects and this draws two of them together. He is a modern day master of the Church Fathers, the early Church, Mary. With over 30 works to his name he is an expert. And many Catholics and other Christians recognize his expertise in these two fields. Some of Mike’s works are written for the general lay person, and some are very academic. This one is in the middle. I would not recommend this volume for someone in High school, but honestly any adult could read it and be blessed by the reading. The introduction ends with these words:
“Today we can read volume after volume of commentary on Scripture by the Fathers of the Church. But we forget that those commentaries had a context. Almost without exception, the Fathers were men who had congregations to look after. They wrote their commentaries and their interpretations because they had a flock who needed to know what Scripture meant in their own lives.
Writing about Scripture was not an academic exercise for the Fathers. It was vital to get the interpretation right because souls depended on it—souls that had been committed to their care. Sometimes they were writing directly for their congregations, as St. Ephrem did when he made Scripture sing for them (see chapter 6). Other times they wrote to inform or correct fellow teachers, as St. Augustine and St. Jerome wrote to each other, sometimes vigorously disagreeing. But always they wrote to answer the one essential question: What shall the people be taught in church?
It was not always an easy question to answer. But it had to be answered. Christ gave his Church the mission of leading his people to salvation. That responsibility fell heavily on the shoulders of her teachers, who felt the full weight of it and put their whole hearts into the job. Piece by piece, century by century, they worked out the implications of Scripture for us.
Today, with the Bible on every smartphone, we can easily forget that the Church is the home of Scripture. Turning back to the Fathers helps us remember that there is no Scripture without the Church. And to get into the proper frame of mind, it will help to imagine ourselves at Mass right now.”
What Mike does in this volume is bring home the centrality of the bible to scriptures, to the early church, to the mass, and ultimately to us and our participation in liturgy and the mass. Mike serves as our guide and director through the fathers. But he is not a stuffy academic talking about long dead people and beliefs. He writes from a place of personal experience and faith. And that faith shines through this work. And his faith will help shed light on the fathers, and on our own faith.
This is another work of great scholarship. It is an engaging read. And Aquilina is one of the greatest scholars of the early church and world of our times if not all time. As Saint Paul said in Corinthians about milk and solid food, this volume is solid food for our spiritual nourishment. It is an excellent book to read for your personal sanctity and growth. I recommend this volume. I am certain if you pick it up, you will not be disappointed!
Note: This book is part of a series of reviews: 2022 Catholic Reading Plan!
April 18, 2025
I got this for a rather inexpensive $5 at the SEEK25 conference. This is a good book to read if you want to be introduced to the church fathers and their writings. Although I was disappointed to see very little commentary from Aquilina. To me, this book seems like something you'd use to prepare for a debate on the topic of scripture in the early church. I'm not against creating a work for that purpose, it just doesn't seem tailored for the layman per se.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews