Fourth post in a series on the early Christians.
It might be instructive to post a timeline. I gathered most of this information from Encyclopedia.com — not really an authoritative source, but it was nice and searchable. All dates are, of course, A. D. Let’s just take it up to the fourth century or so:
- Clement of Rome d. 97
- Ignatius of Antioch d. 107
- Papias c. 130
- Aristides d. 126 or 136
- The Didache written between 50 and 150
- Polycarp 70-156
- The Shepherd of Hermas written between 139 and 155
- Justin Martyr 100-165
- Athenagoras 2nd c.
- Minucius Felix 2nd c.
- Tatian 2nd c.
- Theophilus of Antioch 2nd c.
- Irenaeus of Lyons 125-202
- Clement of Alexandria d. 215
- Tertullian 160-230
- Hippolytus d. 236
- Novatian c. 250
- Cornelius I d. 253
- Origen 185-254
- Cyprian 200-258
- Dionysius of Alexandria 190-265
- Arnobius d. 330
- Eusebius of Caesarea 263-339
This brings us up approximately to the time of the First Ecumenical Council of the Church, held at Nicaea in 325. Accordingly the writers listed above, except perhaps the last two, may be called the ante-Nicene Fathers. This council, of course, is the one in which the following Creed was agreed to contain the ancient faith of the Apostles:
We believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible;
and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, that is, of the substance [ek tes ousias] of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God of true God, begotten not made, of the same substance with the Father [homoousion to patri], through whom all things were made both in heaven and on earth;
who for us men and our salvation descended, was incarnate, and was made man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended into heaven and cometh to judge the living and the dead.
And in the Holy Ghost.
Those who say: There was a time when He was not, and He was not before He was begotten; and that He was made our of nothing (ex ouk onton); or who maintain that He is of another hypostasis or another substance [than the Father], or that the Son of God is created, or mutable, or subject to change, [them] the Catholic Church anathematizes.
A form of the above with slightly altered language is today’s Nicene Creed.
Some of the most famous early Christian writers, of course, flourished after this time (and are styled the post-Nicene Fathers). Augustine, for example, the earliest Christian writer (not counting the New Testament) that I was familiar with before beginning this series, didn’t write until the 390’s.
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