1. The Fathers
The 38-volume Early Church Fathers set, edited by Schaff and Robertson (among others) is a treasure. It comprises three sets: the 10-volume Ante-Nicene Fathers (Clement, Origen, Tertullian, and others who lived and wrote before the Council of Nicea in 325), the 14-volume Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series (Augustine and John Chrysostom), and the 14-volume Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series (Eusebius, Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory Naziantzen, Basil the Great, John Cassian and a lot of others). The set contains representative and, in some cases, the complete writings of every important Christian author in the first eight centuries of the Church. To read this set with some care would be an outstanding education in the foundational writings of the Christian Church, and it is essential reading to understand all the later Christian doctors like Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin, because they rely heavily upon, and constantly quote, the Early Fathers. As the introduction to the very first volume puts it, this set is a concise autobiography of the early years of the Bride of Christ.
2. Modern Ignorance
The fact that this set is still in print and available (for about $220, at the time of this writing, from Christianbook.com) is wonderful. The fact that not many Christians know the value of it is sad. Recently I ran across a blog by a young man (whom no one reading this will know, so don't get all curious) who is from a very fundamentalist branch of evangelical Christianity and seems to consider himself fairly knowledgeable about the faith; in his blog he reviewed a recent Time magazine article on Christ and the history of Christian belief about Him. Athanasius was mentioned in the article; the young man didn't know who Athanasius was, but was horrified by Athanasius's quote ("God became man that we might become gods"); looked up Athanasius on Google and reported that "apparently Athanasius is an important figure in the early church" (!) but concluded that Athanasius was heretical (!!!!). Now, it's not this young man's fault that he hasn't been taught Church History and that he doesn't know that Athanasius is known as "The Father of Orthodoxy", and that to call him a heretic is utterly absurd, and that in context the quote about us "becoming gods" is perfectly Biblical. It's a crying shame, but it's the fault of the American Church at large which has bought the modern lie that the past is irrelevant and has cut itself off from its glorious heritage. There are excellent and readable histories of the Church, but behind them all is this tremendous set. Of course, one ought to read later fathers too but these are primary. George Grant has a wonderful essay about the value and history of reading the early fathers on his blog.
3. Modern Apathy
Nevertheless, the fact that this set is still in print and available is wonderful; but it's sad that even those of us who own the set and know a bit more about Church History don't read it much - we have it on our shelves and reference it occasionally, and we think we're pretty hot stuff because we own it and reference it, but they didn't write to be referenced; they wrote to be read entire, studied, digested thoroughly. The great Philip Schaff, one of the editors of the set, also wrote the magisterial 8-volume History of the Christian Church (which everyone should read from beginning to end - it's available for about $100 at Christianbook.com). In this history he demonstrates himself to have been a masterful student of the early fathers. He knew his Church history, not because he'd studied the other Church historians (though he had) but because he'd studied the original sources. And if you dig into Athanasius, Augustine, Chrysostom, and others, you find that to study these original sources is often, as C. S. Lewis points out in "On the Reading of Old Books" (in God in the Dock), not only easier than reading histories about them, but far more profitable. Because these fathers were not writing to increase knowledge, but rather to increase wisdom and love for God; they were writing to increase holiness in hearers who were reading for that purpose. They were not writing to leave relics for later ages to quote, but for later ages to be edified by, and by those writings to build up the Church of Christ.
4. A Resolution
I want to read this entire set. I've calculated the number of pages, timed myself reading aloud (because I do not intend to rush, but to read aloud and carefully) and played with schedules and generally had a great time planning a program of reading. My problem is that I take great delight in planning schedules and thinking about how productive I could be in the future, but when it comes to actually living by my ideal plans, things fall apart. Nevertheless, I am going to start, and perhaps by saying so on this blog I'll be forced to try to keep to my plan just to save face. Another difficulty too, is that I have an awful lot to do, and maybe I should do this when I have more time. But C. S. Lewis says, in his essay "Learning in Wartime" (in The Weight of Glory) that that is a mistake. "We are always falling in love, or quarreling, looking for jobs or fearing to lose them, getting ill and recovering, following public affairs. If we let ourselves, we shall always be waiting for some distraction or other to end before we can really get down to our work. The only people who achieve knowledge are those who seek it while the conditions are still unfavorable. Favorable conditions never come." Each year that passes is one less that I have to learn what I want to learn. I'm not the only one in this position - each of you who reads this is in exactly the same place. The difference is, if you start NOW, you'll get a lot farther than I have. If you put it off till the time is better, you'll be right where I am.
5. The Plan
I was going to start January 1st, but that was procrastination. As I wrote this post I persuaded myself not to wait. I'm starting this weekend. I'll start at the very beginning and read about 10 pages a day. That may take me up to an hour a day, maybe less: there are two columns per page and about 450 words per column, and reading one 2-column page at a leisurely out-loud pace takes me just under six minutes. I do not intend to take less time than that. I may not do exactly 10 pages a day - if I can read whole letters or other natural chunks, I'd prefer to do so - the point is to keep reading, not to follow a schedule - the schedule is just a help. I'm going to start a separate blog to keep a record of my reading - and if anyone reading this would like to join me in this weird project of mine, I'd be very happy for the company and will give you the password to the blog so you can post too; it would be the blog of the reading. Not that I expect this group to be very large!