The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics

"There is nothing to my knowledge quite like this volume ... this is a fascinating and innovative volume. It should certainly be required reading for advanced graduate students, and most professional researchers will gain from considering its challenges to current practices, both in relation to content and methodology." -- Journal of Ancient Christianity This comprehensive volume brings together a team of distinguished scholars to create a wide-ranging introduction to patristic authors and their contributions to not only theology and spirituality, but to philosophy, ecclesiology, linguistics, hagiography, liturgics, homiletics, iconology, and other fields. These newly commissioned essays by leading scholars cover the reception history of prominent as well as lesser-known figures, offering synthetic accounts of a number of topics central to patristic studies, including scripture, scholasticism, and the Reformation. The volume examines the work of authors who wrote in languages other than Latin and Greek, including those writing within the Coptic, Armenian, Syriac, and Arabic Christian traditions. It challenges accepted definitions and notions about the scope of patristics and the patristic period, in particular questioning the Western framework in which the field has traditionally been constructed. The contributors also demonstrate the importance of knowing which figures have been central to historical events, why some have been neglected at the expense of others, and why many have undergone periods of repudiation and revived interest. Above all, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Patristics demonstrates the continuing role of these writings in enriching and inspiring our understanding of Christianity, both past and present.