Theological Term of the Week: Apostolic Fathers
Wednesday, October 6, 2021 at 3:30AM 
apostolic fathers
“[T]he authors of the earliest Christian writings which came next after the New Testament.”1
- From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham, page 58:
The name [apostolic fathers] was invented in the 17th Century, when scholars believed that these early Christian writers all had direct personal contact with the apostles; most historians today think that only a few of them did… The age of the apostolic fathers stretched only from about AD 95 to 140.
Learn more:
- Got Questions: Who were the Apostolic Fathers?
- Theopedia: Apostolic Fathers
Related terms:
- Ambrose of Milan
- Apollinarius
- Athanasius
- Augustine of Hippo
- Basil of Caesarea
- Cappadocian fathers
- Columba
- Cyril of Alexandria
- Gregory of Nanzianzus
- Gregory of Nyssa
- Gregory the Great
- Hilary of Poitiers
- Irenaeus of Lyons
- Jerome
- John Chrysostom
- Justin Martyr
- Maximus the Confessor
- Monica
- Nestorius
- Origen
- Patrick
- Pelagius
- Sabellius
- Tertullian
- Venerable Bede, The
1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.
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