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

I read the Church History by Eusebius in this volume (of the Church Fathers set), which covers about 3/5 of the book. I'll read The Life of Constantine (also by Eusebius in this volume) later.

The notes in this volume are prodigious. It would have taken me much longer to finish had I read all the notes. What notes I did read were very informative, I thought.

The translation and notes are old, however. They come from about 1890. I was surprised at how modern-sounding they were however - siding show more with the gnostics, for instance, or discrediting some of the more naive claims of Eusebius for Constantine. Very well done.

This is a good book to read if you want to know about the history of the persecutions of the church in the first three centuries after Christ. It's very graphic and in some places sounds like a modern journalistic expose of the many events. Heresy is the other subject that gets some attention in the book. 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

Notwithstanding St. Augustine's failure to fully escape gnostic thought and his decision to address the arguments of the pagans via logical argumentation versus a prepositional assessment of Roman philosophy in light of the Word of God, St. Augustine's grasp of the antithesis of the two cities as well his description regarding what constitutes the City of God make this book an excellent resource.