The Christian Fathers

This book offers an account of patristic thinking which explores the way in which the early Christian Fathers considered the main questions of Christian belief: the image of God, the divine Christ, the incarnation, sin and salvation, the sacraments, the church and ethics. Professor Wiles has achieved what might almost be termed notoriety for his controversial studies The Making of Christian Doctrine and The Remaking of Christian Doctrine, which have raised far-reaching questions about the meaning and validity of much traditional Christian teaching. As he himself has pointed out, however, the early Christian Fathers are not well-known today, and anyone involved in a discussion of the value of the scheme of theology which they evolved needs at least to know what that scheme was. This book offers an account of patristic thinking which explores the way in which the Fathers considered the main questions of Christian belief: the image of God, the divine Christ, the incarnation, sin and salvation, the sacraments, the church and ethics. Professor Wiles' lucid and sympathetic account will show that he was far more than an iconoclast and provided one of the best available introductions to its theme.