Patrology
patrology
(Latin: pater, father; Greek: logos, science)
Study of the Fathers of the Church .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Patrology
Patrology, the study of the writings of the Fathers of the Church, has more commonly been known in England as “patristics”, or, more commonly still, as “patristic study”. Some writers, chiefly in Germany, have distinguished between patrologia and patristica: Fessler, for instance, defines patrologia as the science which provides all that is necessary for the using of the works of the Fathers, dealing, therefore, with their authority, the criteria for judging their genuineness, the difficulties to be met within them, and the rules for their use. But Fessler’s own “Institutiones Patrologi” has a larger range, as have similar works entitled Patrologies, of which the most serviceable is that of Bardenhewer (tr. Shahan, Freiburg, 1908). On the other hand, Fessler describes patristica as that theological science by which all that concerns faith, morals, or discipline in the writings of the Fathers is collected and sorted. Lastly, the lives and works of the Fathers are described by another science: literary history. These distinctions are not much observed, nor do they seem very necessary; they are nothing else than aspects of patristic study as it forms part of fundamental theology, of positive theology, and of literary history. Another meaning of the word patrologia has come to it from the title of the great collections of the complete works of the Fathers published by the Abbé Migne (q.v.), “Patrologia Latina”, 221 vols., and “Patrologia Græca”, 161 vols.
———————————–
For bibliography see FATHERS OP THE CHURCH.
JOHN CHAPMAN Transcribed by Douglas J. Potter Dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XICopyright © 1911 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, February 1, 1911. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Patrology
a term which properly applies to the doctrinal and ethical systems found in the writings of the Christian Church fathers; while Patristics strictly relates to their life, history, and literary character. The two words, however, are generally used interchangeably. The writings of the ante-Nicene fathers are remarkable for their deference to the teaching of the Scriptures. Their doctrines and exhortations are based upon the New Testament, and fortified by citations from the Gospels and Epistles. This peculiarity aids one in determining how far the New Testament was regarded as of divine authority, and what approach had then been made towards the settlement of the canon. The ante-Nicene fathers agree in their testimony to the reformation wrought by Christianity in private morals and in public manners. Thus Tertullian, in his Apology, boldly challenges the enemies of Christians to point out any evil in their lives that can be fairly ascribed to their religion, and refers with exultation to their domestic purity, their integrity in business, their sobriety and order, and their abounding charities, as fruits of the Gospel. Nor are there wanting in the ante-Nicene fathers traces of that spirit of philosophy and of erudition which in their successors shaped the doctrinal germs of the New Testament into elaborate systems of theology, varying according to the influence of Plato and of Aristotle upon the thought of the age, though in general one finds in that period rather the elementary and practical truths that belong to an age of missionary zeal. But though we may not look to the early fathers for classic elegance of style or the perfection of rhetorical art, one is charmed with their simple fervor, with their earnestness of purpose, with their unflinching devotion to the cause they had espoused; and something of roughness, even of violence, may be pardoned in men who lived in stormy times, and spoke and wrote in view of the torture, the block, the arena. We owe to them a living picture of Christianity as a working power in human thought and society at the beginning of its triumphs. SEE PATRISTICS.