Philip Schaff (1819–1893)

This book, filled with the moving spirituality and deep insights of one of the greatest of the Church Fathers and certainly the greatest orator that the Church has ever possessed, was the best Lenten reading that I've had the privilege of spending time with yet. I was right on schedule throughout, as I read his homilies on the last several days of Christ's earthly life throughout Holy Week and finally read the final homily, on the Resurrection, on Pascha afternoon. There is a good reason show more that St. John is remembered by the Church as "Chrysostom," meaning "Gold-tongued." On every page he is eloquent, touching, beautiful, insightful, inspiring, edifying all at once. He opens up the Gospel of St. Matthew in so many ways and in such a manner that I would not have thought it possible without reading it for myself. If you want deeper insights into the Scriptures and into living the Christian life, read the homilies of St. John Chrysostom -- beginning with this collection of homilies. show less

Why I ever purchased this in 2012, I have no idea! Upon finally opening it up on my Kindle, I can tell you that most of the 980 pages were a slog. I did NOT read all 980 pages. I read about 400 pages written by Constantine the Great that deal with self-praise for his successes and his explanation on why he accepted Christianity, why he made it the national religion, and how men and women in the empire would reap the benefits of his conversion. This also included Eusebius' Oration of Praise show more in Honor of Constantine. In the scholarly historical sense, it wasn't "bad." In the enjoyment sense, pffft! There were as many notes as script and often they were more interesting. Off it goes into Kindle space! (The "original" is 32,400 pages, 38 volumes) show less

While difficult to follow at times, this book still proved interesting to read. Personally, I found the first part of the book a little easier to follow than the latter part. Generally, though, there was still a good amount of useful information and insights provided. Unsurprisingly, the book discusses the Trinity. Augustine spends a good amount of time discussing the nature of the Trinity, comparing and contrasting different beliefs and ideas. In the later part of the book, he tries to draw show more analogies to help illustrate the nature of the Trinity. It's definitely not light reading, but potentially worth working through if you're interested in theology. show less

The 4th volume of Schaff's "History" covers A.D. 590 to 1973, the Christianity's Mediaeval period, which covers, for example, on the conversion of Ireland (chapter 2, sections 14-16); on Islam's rise and challenge to Christianity (chapter 3), Catholicism, Popes with the Church's morally downward spiral and decadent worship of images in the midst of some voices who called for moral reform and were against image-worship, theological controversies (e.g. the Eucharist and Predestination, the show more latter which I always find most interesting) covered in chapter 11, "Doctrinal Controversies," and ending with a list and brief discussions on Greek ecclesiastical writers of the 12th-century (which I found a bit tedious).

This might not have been a good a volume as the first three were it not for the discussion of controversies in doctrine and Islam, and other controversies here and there (e.g. eucharist, popes, etc) within the Church worldwide. Also, the general literature, hymns, and poetry (with some examples) of this period are covered.

In any case, it is a volume worth taking the time to read, if quickly at some points (like the last chapter on the list of Christian writers). show less