SUGGESTION: Introduction to Early Church Fathers

MJ. Smith

In the forums, I find that many users own editions of the Early Church Fathers but really don't know what to do with them. Then I ran into this chart online:

Name(s)	Birth	Death	Roles	Works	Overview
St. Athanasius	c. 296 Alexandria, Egypt	May 2/3, 373 Alexandria	Bishop of Alexandria	On the Incarnation; Life of St. Anthony	Opponent of Arianism, defender of Nicene Christology; supporter of monasticism.
St. Augustine of Hippo; Aurelius Augustine; "The Doctor of Grace"	354 Thagaste, N. Africa	430 Hippo, N. Africa	Bishop of Hippo, theologian	City of God; Confessions; On Free Will; On the Trinity; Handbook on Faith, Hope and Love	Developed orthodox doctrines of grace, original sin, soul, Trinity, the church.
Basil the Great	c.330 Cappadocia	c.379	Cappadocian father, monk, Bishop of Caesarea	Philocalia; On the Holy Spirit; Against Eunomius	Involved in Arian controversy.
St. Clement of Alexandria	c. 150	c. 215	theologian; professor	Exhortations; Teachings; Miscellanies	Interpreted Christian teachings in the context of Greek philosophy.
St. Clement of Rome; Clement I; Pope St. Clement	unknown	c. 101	Bishop of Rome	1 Clement	Considered fourth Pope by Catholics; might be mentioned in Php. 4:3. Probable author of 1 Clement, a letter once considered for the NT canon.
Gregory of Nazianzus	329/30 Nazianzus in Cappadocia	389/90	Cappadocian father, monk, preacher	Five Theological Orations	Studied at Athens. Influenced outcome of Council of Constantinople (381) by his eloquent preaching.
Gregory of Nyssa	c. 330 Cappadocia	c. 395 Constantinople?	Cappadocian father, Bishop of Nyssa, monk, preacher, theologian	Against Eunomius, Against Apollinarius, Catechetical Oration; On Virginity	Brother of St. Basil. Influenced by Platonism.
Ignatius of Antioch	unknown	c. 110 Rome, Italy	Bishop of Antioch	seven letters	Wrote letters on his way to be matryred; opposed Docetism.
Irenaeus of Lyons	c. 140	c. 200 France	Bishop of Lyons	Against Heresies	Disciple of Polycarp. Developed idea of "recapitulation." Writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology. Against Heresies is a detailed description and refutation of Gnosticism.
Jerome	c. 342 Slovenia	420 Bethlehem	scholar, theologian	Vulgate; Against Jovinian; Against Vigilantius; Commentaries	Translated Bible into Latin
Justin Martyr	c. 100 Flavia Neapolis, Palestine [now Nabulus]	c. 165 Rome, Italy (feast: June 1)	apologist, philosopher	Apology; Dialogue with Trypho the Jew	A convert from paganism and Greek philosopher, Justin represents the first positive encounter between Christianity and Greek philosophy.
Origen of Alexandria; Origenes Adamantius	c. 185 Alexandria	c. 254 Caeserea or Tyre	apologist, theologian, teacher	Against Celsus; Commentaries; Homilies	Taught universalism and preexistence of souls. Views condemned by Council in 533.
Tertullian	160 Carthage	220	theologian, apologist	Against Praxeas; Apology; On the Soul	Coined theological terms such as trinity, person, substance; argued that faith and reason do not mix. "Father of Latin Theology."

It then occurred to me that an expansion of this type of table could meet a major need - and be accessed via facets to help people find the right resource to read.

1. Early Church Father (include all authors from Migne's 3 series);
2. Birth date and place
3. death date and place; note martyrs
4. influenced by / influenced ... I'm thinking especially of teacher/student relationship
5. titles (St, Bl, Dr by church when different); ecclesial positions - bishop, abbott; popular names e.g. Cappadocian fathers
6. schools or heresies associated with them
7. roles
8. language of written works
9. written works - actual and erroneously attributed to separated
10. overview
11. link to Factbook entry

As gathering the initial data is a serious resource hog, I would suggest that this could be an opportunity to let users interested in the data build proposed entries and reserve FL staff for reviewing and correcting the data. The creator of the data could provide the sources in footnotes to speed up the review process.