After the New Testament: The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers (Great Courses The Teaching Company)

In this course, we will examine the various writings of the Apostolic Fathers, both to see what each of the surviving books has to say and to see how these books can instruct us about the emerging Christian Church of the 2nd century. In rough outline, the lectures of the course are set up in "pairs," in which the first lecture discusses the writing of one of the Apostolic Fathers and the next deals with the broader implications of the writing for understanding key issues in the early history of Christianity. We will begin with the letter of 1 Clement, written by the Christians of Rome to quell an uprising in the church of Corinth around A.D. 95; our examination of this letter will lead us, in the next lecture, to consider the development of a Church hierarchy in the early Christian communities. Next, we will consider the Letters of Ignatius, one of the earliest Christian martyrs, whose writings urge adherence to the one bishop of each church and warn against false teachers. These letters will serve as a springboard to consider various kinds of "heresies" in early Christianity. Then, we will look at the letter written by Polycarp to the church in Philippi, which had experienced some turmoil when one of its elders was caught red-handed in some kind of shady dealings; this letter quotes numerous earlier Christian writings and, thus, will allow us, in the next lecture, to consider how Christians began to appreciate earlier writings as canonical Scripture. Another writing of the Apostolic Fathers is an account of Polycarp's own martyrdom; this eyewitness report will lead us to consider how, why, when, and where Christians were persecuted for their faith in the early years of the religion. Also significant among these writings is a book called the Didache, which contains ethical instructions for Christians and indicates how the Christian rites of baptism, eucharist, prayer, and fasting were to be practiced.....much more