To my fellow Catholics out there, you may already be familiar with the history of our faith, beginning with Christ’s death and Resurrection for us, followed by the apostles, per Christ’s instructions and the power of the Holy Spirit, pioneering the Church we have now had for 2000 years. That is, the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church with approximately 1.3 billion baptized into the Church. That is, the Catholic Church.
To those who of you who are not Catholic, yet are reading this blog, my intro statement might have sounded sharply biased – that I am just another Christian crumudgeon out there thumbing my nose to other religions or to Protestant factions.
Except there is a good, clear reason why the Catholic Church is what I half amusingly call “The O.C.” (The Original Church). Sort of like the old school acronym, “O.G.” (Original Gangster) – though in this case, no Catholic gangsters around, thankfully.
Of course, some critics of the Catholic Church may think otherwise – and that is one of the many reasons I have prepared this blog: It is time, once and for all, to settle the debate about whether the Catholic Church is, in fact, the “O.C.”. What’s more, that the O.C. does in fact draw *all* of its core teachings from Sacred Scripture. (Note: Keep in mind that this debate is already settled – yet, at the risk of sounding a little snarky, we unfortunately still have to defend and explain this 2000 years later.
Similar to how we Catholics understand the Catechism – that it is a comprehensive teaching tool for understanding our faith, again based on Scripture, and not a new revelation or addendum (such as the Book of Mormon, etc.) — the Church Fathers drew directly from Scripture to write and teach about our Catholic Christian faith.
Let’s start with analogy before getting to the core points in The Fathers Know Best by Jimmy Akin: Imagine a blueprint for a house. The blueprint shows the house’s entire structure, a detailed floor plan, measurements, and perhaps some notes about the materials to be used, as well as a guide to what the exterior and interior colors should look like.
Next, you are chosen to build the house to spec. Not only will you be building the house, but you will also document the whole process, including the history about why the house is to be constructed in the first place, who came up with the initial design, and why you were chosen to be the builder. Let’s say you are a general contractor if you will.
And as the general contractor, you must find resources to help you construct the house, document the process as well, and explain any nuances in the blueprint.
Lastly, and as the general contractor, you pass all this information down to the future residents, and each resident is required to appoint a new resident before handing over residency privileges.
Further, during the entire process, the blueprint for the house does not change at all: Instead, the successive line of general contractors ensures that all the details about the house are consistent. That if the blueprint shows it’s a two-story house, anyone claiming to the contractor that the house should be one-story must compare their understanding with how all prior general contractors described the house. Even if the blueprint didn’t specifically use the word two-story, we know clearly from the blueprint that it is in fact a two-story, the general contractors update that in the supporting documents. Therefore, the original plan is still the same. And the contractors, over time, make sure the blueprint is as true to the original as possible.
Such is the case with the early Church Fathers and ecclesiastical writers, who collectively upheld Sacred Scripture while building the Sacred Tradition that we Catholics help uphold through the Sacraments, the Magisterium, and all clergy who help guide our relationship with God.
This brings us to The Fathers Know Best. Jimmy Akin, who, like Trent Horn, is an A-level apologist, is yet another influence in my own teaching and apologetics work. And while there is always room to learn more when studying Christian theology – progress, progress, progress! – Akin does a superior job of being clear and to the point in his writing, while giving an abundantly wealthy amount of well-sourced information to support Catholic teaching. To quote the forward by Marcus Grodi, who hosts “The Journey Home” on EWTN: “As a convert himself and a well-honed apologist, Jimmy knows the topics that are the most crucial for those wanting and needing to know what the early Church believed – especially in those doctrinal areas where Catholics and non-Catholics bump heads”.
Marcus Grodi is right: This is, to a “t”, Akin’s approach to Catholic theology and the early Church Fathers – and that is well-evident in The Fathers Know Best: Akin not only gives a basic, yet thorough primer about the Church Fathers, ecclesiastical writers, and councils during the first ~700 years of Christianity, he essentially provides a handbook (which is exactly what he calls it) on showing how the Church Fathers were consistent on all Catholic related, theological topics. From the Trinity to Church authority, to the Sacraments, to Mary and the Saints, Akin provides pointed references that effectively flush out skepticism about the Catholic Church’s central role to Christianity.
In my own experience, based on testimonies given to me, I have honestly lost count of the number of Catholic converts I’ve met who considered the Church Fathers a big factor – along with accepting the Gospel itself – in their becoming Catholic. So many times I have heard, “When I studied the Church Fathers, it was undeniable that Catholic Church has been the central Church to Christianity for 2000 years now”. Or “The Church Fathers were so consistent about the Eucharist (or about Mary, the Trinity, apostolic succession, Baptism, the Papacy, the Saints” – and so on…
And that they were. Even if any skeptics remain skeptical after thoroughly researching the Church Fathers, any claim that the Church Fathers were not in line with Catholic teaching just does not add up. Akin shows this loud and clear throughout The Fathers Know Best.
Now, to be fair to other resources out there, the link below is to a multi-part lecture series on the Church Fathers: Charles Craigmile, who taught the lecture series, is also well-versed in Church history and Christian theology overall. This video series makes a good, supplemental companion to The Fathers Know Best — though the latter gives many more examples of consistency in Church teaching.
In addition, the site, churchfathers.org, is another valuable resource — and like The Fathers Knows Best, it gives a list of Church Father writings for all major doctrines / teachings.
With these combined resources, my fellow Catholics can be as fully prepared as necessary to answer questions about Church history, show that we Catholics are not being arbitrarily biased, and that we truly have a theologically consistent Church that completely reflects our faith tradition.