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about.php
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570 lines (550 loc) · 39.5 KB
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<?php
$spicy = array (
0 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I know not whether to grieve or laugh. Shall I convict him of ignorance, or accuse him of rashness?',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
1 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Here, first of all, it is quite needless for our opponent to show so elaborately that the word know has reference to coition, rather than to intellectual apprehension: as though anyone denied it, or any person in his senses could ever imagine the folly which Helvidius takes pains to refute.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
2 =>
array (
'quote' => 'To defend his position he piles up text upon text, waves his sword like a blind-folded gladiator, rattles his noisy tongue, and ends with wounding no one but himself.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
3 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I could accumulate countless instances of this usage, and cover the verbosity of our assailant with a cloud of proofs; I shall, however, add only a few, and leave the reader to discover like ones for himself.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
4 =>
array (
'quote' => 'On your showing, Joseph must at once approach, her, and be subject to Jeremiah\'s [Jeremiah 5:8] reproof, "They were as mad horses in respect of women: every one neighed after his neighbour\'s wife."',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
5 =>
array (
'quote' => 'You must either release the only begotten from the penalty, and in that case you become ridiculous: or, if you allow that they were slain, we gain our point, though we have not to thank you for it, that only begotten sons also are called first-born.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
6 =>
array (
'quote' => 'My reason for repeating the same thing again and again is to prevent him from raising a false issue and crying out that I have withheld such passages as make for him, and that his view has been torn to shreds not by evidence of Scripture, but by evasive arguments.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
7 =>
array (
'quote' => 'There are things which, in your extreme ignorance, you had never read, and therefore you neglected the whole range of Scripture and employed your madness in outraging the Virgin.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
8 =>
array (
'quote' => '[You are] like the man in the story who being unknown to everybody and finding that he could devise no good deed by which to gain renown, burned the temple of Diana: and when no one revealed the sacrilegious act, it is said that he himself went up and down proclaiming that he was the man who had applied the fire. The rulers of Ephesus were curious to know what made him do this thing, whereupon he replied that if he could not have fame for good deeds, all men should give him credit for bad ones. Grecian history relates the incident. But you do worse.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
9 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Pray tell me, who, before you appeared, was acquainted with this blasphemy? Who thought the theory worth two-pence?',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
10 =>
array (
'quote' => 'You have gained your desire, and have become notorious by crime.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
11 =>
array (
'quote' => 'For myself who am your opponent, although we live in the same city, I don\'t know, as the saying is, whether you are white or black.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
12 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I say not a word about your absurd introduction. Good heavens!',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
13 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I do not ask for eloquence, since, having none yourself, you applied for a supply of it to your brother Craterius. I do not ask for grace of style, I look for purity of soul.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
14 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Was Joseph His true father? Dull as you are, you will not venture to say that.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
15 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Now that I have cleared the rocks and shoals I must spread sail and make all speed to reach his epilogue.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
16 =>
array (
'quote' => 'We are, however, spending our strength on trifles, and, leaving the fountain of truth, are following the tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers?',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
17 =>
array (
'quote' => 'If you had ever read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
18 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I now direct the attack against the passage in which, wishing to show your cleverness, you institute a comparison between virginity and marriage. I could not forbear smiling, and I thought of the proverb, did you ever see a camel dance?',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
19 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I agree with you, when you say, that some virgins are nothing but tavern women; I say still more, that even adulteresses may be found among them, and, you will no doubt be still more surprised to hear, that some of the clergy are inn-keepers and some monks unchaste.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
20 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I assure you that I shall regard your railing as a high distinction, since the same lips that assail me have disparaged Mary, and I, a servant of the Lord, am favoured with the same barking eloquence as His mother.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
21 =>
array (
'quote' => 'For if I may not say, "I know you," because I have not seen your face, it may with equal truth be said that you do not know yourself, for you cannot see your own face.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102040.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
22 =>
array (
'quote' => 'With his usual effrontery, Calphurnius, surnamed Lanarius, [Rufinus] has sent me his execrable writings, which I understand that he has been at pains to disseminate in Africa also.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102068.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
23 =>
array (
'quote' => 'In this treatise I have been careful not to offend Christian feeling in any, but only to confute the lies and hallucinations arising from his ignorance and madness.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102068.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
24 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I tell you again, without reserve, what I feel: you are challenging an old man, disturbing the peace of one who asks only to be allowed to be silent, and you seem to desire to display your learning.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102072.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
25 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Farewell, my very dear friend, my son in years, my father in ecclesiastical dignity; and to this I most particularly request your attention, that henceforth you make sure that I be the first to receive whatever you may write to me.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102072.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
26 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Wherefore, as I have already written, either send me the identical letter in question subscribed with your own hand, or desist from annoying an old man, who seeks retirement in his monastic cell.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102072.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
27 =>
array (
'quote' => 'If you wish to exercise or display your learning, choose as your antagonists, young, eloquent, and illustrious men, of whom it is said that many are found in Rome, who may be neither unable nor afraid to meet you, and to enter the lists with a bishop in debates concerning the Sacred Scriptures.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102072.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
28 =>
array (
'quote' => 'As for me, a soldier once, but a retired veteran now, it becomes me rather to applaud the victories won by you and others, than with my worn-out body to take part in the conflict.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102072.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
29 =>
array (
'quote' => 'It is possible that your opinion may be at variance with the truth.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102073.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
30 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Why, then, shall I fear your words, hard, perhaps, like the boxing-gloves of Entellus, but certainly fitted to do me good? The blows of Entellus were intended not to heal, but to harm, and therefore his antagonist was conquered, not cured. But I, if I receive your correction calmly as a necessary medicine, shall not be pained by it.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102073.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
31 =>
array (
'quote' => 'If, however, through weakness, either common to human nature or peculiar to myself, I cannot help feeling some pain from rebuke, even when I am justly reproved, it is far better to have a tumour in one\'s head cured, though the lance cause pain, than to escape the pain by letting the disease go on.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102073.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
32 =>
array (
'quote' => 'This was clearly seen by him who said that, for the most part, our enemies who expose our faults are more useful than friends who are afraid to reprove us. For the former, in their angry recriminations, sometimes charge us with what we indeed require to correct; but the latter, through fear of destroying the sweetness of friendship, show less boldness on behalf of right than they ought.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102073.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
33 =>
array (
'quote' => 'For I have not now, and I can never hope to have, such knowledge of the Divine Scriptures as I see you possess.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102073.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
34 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I pass by the conciliatory phrases in your courteous salutation: I say nothing of the compliments by which you attempt to take the edge off your censure: let me come at once to the matters in debate.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
35 =>
array (
'quote' => 'The sum of your whole argument, which you have expanded into a most prolix dissertation, is this...',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
36 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I therefore beseech you, who think that you are called upon to heal my slight wound, which is no more, so to speak, than a prick or scratch from a needle, to devote your skill in the healing art to this grievous wound, which has been opened by a spear driven home with the impetus of a javelin. For there is surely no proportion between the culpability of him who exhibits the various opinions held by the fathers in a commentary on Scripture, and the guilt of him who reintroduces within the Church a most pestilential heresy.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
37 =>
array (
'quote' => 'They would not be observed unless they contributed to salvation. For they are not things indifferent - neither good nor bad, as philosophers say. Self-control is good, self-indulgence is bad: between these, and indifferent, as having no moral quality, are such things as walking, blowing one\'s nose, expectorating phlegm, etc. Such an action is neither good nor bad; for whether you do it or leave it undone, it does not affect your standing as righteous or unrighteous.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
38 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Moreover, refrain from stirring up against me the unlearned crowd who esteem you as their bishop, and regard with the respect due the priestly office the orations which you deliver in the church, but who esteem lightly an old decrepit man like me, courting the retirement of a monastery far from the busy haunts of men; and seek others who may be more fitly instructed or corrected by you.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
39 =>
array (
'quote' => 'In closing this letter, I beseech you to have some consideration for a soldier who is now old and has long retired from active service, and not to force him to take the field and again expose his life to the chances of war. Do you, who are young, and who have been appointed to the conspicuous seat of pontifical dignity, give yourself to teaching the people, and enrich Rome with new stores from fertile Africa. I am contented to make but little noise in an obscure corner of a monastery, with one to hear me or read to me.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
40 =>
array (
'quote' => 'But if, as a famous orator has said, "Laws are silent amid the clash of arms," how much more may this be said of scriptural studies, which demand a multitude of books and silence, together with uninterrupted diligence of amanuenses, and especially the enjoyment of tranquility and leisure by those who dictate!',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102165.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
41 =>
array (
'quote' => 'As an apt illustration of this remark let me quote an entertaining anecdote. A man had fallen into a well where the quantity of water was sufficient to break his fall and save him from death, but not deep enough to cover his mouth and deprive him of speech. Another man approached, and on seeing him cries out in surprise: "How did you fall in here?" He answers: "I beseech you to plan how you can get me out of this, rather than ask how I fell in."',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102167.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
42 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Go on and prosper! You are renowned throughout the whole world; Catholics revere and look up to you as the restorer of the ancient faith, and - which is a token of yet more illustrious glory - all heretics abhor you.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102195.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
43 =>
array (
'quote' => 'For he flounders from beginning to end in the same mud, and, with the exception of some jingling phrases which are not original, says nothing he had not said before.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102202.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
44 =>
array (
'quote' => 'It is indeed no great thing to answer his superlatively silly puerilities, but if the Lord spare me, and I have a sufficient staff of amanuenses, I will in a few brief lucubrations answer him, not to refute a defunct heresy, but to silence his ignorance and blasphemy by arguments.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102202.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
45 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I could pardon you if you were ignorant, but I see you have a reason for your silence.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3007.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
46 =>
array (
'quote' => 'The ignorance of persons who do not know the sacred scriptures well and have not consulted histories, always turns them to one thing after another, and distracts anyone who wants to track down something about the truth out of his own head.',
'source' => 'https://books.google.com/books?id=tKtzRNP0Z70C&pg=PA620&lpg=PA620#v=onepage&q&f=false',
'father' => 'Epiphanius of Salamis',
),
47 =>
array (
'quote' => 'For though I can move my finger to point out an object, it is out of my power to open men\'s eyes that they may see either the fact that I am pointing, or the object at which I point.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/12020.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
48 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Let us suppose some man to have admitted: If a snail is an animal, it has a voice. This being admitted, then, when it has been proved that the snail has no voice, it follows (since when the consequent is proved false, the antecedent is also false) that the snail is not an animal. Now this conclusion is false, but it is a true and valid inference from the false admission.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/12022.htm',
'father' => 'Augustine',
),
49 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Such are the portentous names which, to excite the minds of unlearned men and weak women, they pretend to draw from Hebrew sources, terrifying the simple by barbarous combinations which they admire the more the less they understand them.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001075.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
50 =>
array (
'quote' => 'It were indeed to be desired, that all the accusers of Christianity were equally ignorant with Celsus, not only of the facts, but of the bare letter of Scripture, and would so direct their assaults against it, that their arguments might not have the least available influence in shaking, I do not say the faith, but the little faith of unstable and temporary believers.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04161.htm',
'father' => 'Origen',
),
51 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I beg you, my most sweet friend, who are so curious that you even know my dreams, and that you scrutinize for purposes of accusations all that I have written during these many years without fear of future calumny; answer me, how is it you do not know the prefaces of the very books on which you ground your charges against me?',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/27102.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
52 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I have gone into this matter at some length not only for the purpose of exposing Porphyry\'s misrepresentation (for either he was ignorant of all these matters or else he pretended not to know them) but also to show the difficulty in Holy Scripture. And yet men who altogether lack experience lay special claim to understanding it apart from the grace of God and the scholarship of preceding generations.',
'source' => 'https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
53 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Up until this point Porphyry somehow managed to maintain his position and impose upon the credulity of the naive among our adherents as well as the poorly educated among his own.',
'source' => 'https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
54 =>
array (
'quote' => 'But what will pigheadedness not resort to? Like some bruised serpent, he lifts up his head as he is about to die, and pours forth his venom upon those who are themselves at the point of death.',
'source' => 'https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
55 =>
array (
'quote' => 'I could afford to despise them if I stood upon my rights, for a lyre is played in vain to an ass.',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001028.htm',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
56 =>
array (
'quote' => 'In turn this Cerinthus, fool and teacher of fools that he is, ventures to maintain that Christ has suffered and been crucified but has not risen yet, but he will rise when the general resurrection of the dead comes.',
'source' => 'https://web.archive.org/web/20150910140518/http://www.masseiana.org/panarion_bk1_notes.htm#29.33',
'father' => 'Epiphanius of Salamis',
),
57 =>
array (
'quote' => 'We should then be never required to try our strength in contests about the soul with philosophers, those patriarchs of heretics, as they may be fairly called... One school of philosophers derives its state from various sources, while another ascribes its departure to different destinations. The various schools reflect the character of their masters, according as they have received their impressions from the dignity of Plato, or the vigour of Zeno, or the equanimity of Aristotle, or the stupidity of Epicurus, or the sadness of Heraclitus, or the madness of Empedocles. The fault, I suppose, of the divine doctrine lies in its springing from Judæa [Isaiah 2:3] rather than from Greece. Christ made a mistake, too, in sending forth fishermen to preach, rather than the sophist. Whatever noxious vapours, accordingly, exhaled from philosophy, obscure the clear and wholesome atmosphere of truth, it will be for Christians to clear away...',
'source' => 'https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0310.htm',
'father' => 'Tertullian',
),
58 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Theodotus\' followers have not told the truth, then, and neither have this \'Brainy\' - \'Brainless\', actually - and his followers, since the sacred scriptures refute them both, and all the erring.',
'source' => 'https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Panarion_of_Epiphanius_of_Salamis_Bo/DSUyAQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22since%20the%20sacred%20scriptures%20refute%20them%20both%22',
'father' => 'Epiphanius of Salamis',
),
59 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Now we may learn how much power there is in simplicity of faith from what is reported to have happened there. For when the zeal of the religious emperor had brought together priests of God from all over the earth, rumor of the event gathered as well philosophers and dialecticians of great renown and fame. One of them who was celebrated for his ability in dialectic used to hold ardent debates each day with our bishops, men likewise by no means unskilled in the art of disputation, and there resulted a magnificent display for the learned and educated men who gathered to listen. Nor could the philosopher be cornered or trapped in any way by anyone, for he met the questions proposed with such rhetorical skill that whenever he seemed most firmly trapped, he escaped like a slippery snake. But that God might show that the kingdom of God is based upon power rather than speech, one of the confessors, a man of the simplest character who knew only Christ Jesus and him crucified, was present with the other bishops in attendance. When he saw the philosopher insulting our people and proudly displaying his skill in dialectic, he asked everyone for a chance to exchange a few words with the philosopher. But our people, who knew only the man\'s simplicity and lack of skill in speech, feared that they might be put to shame in case his holy simplicity became a source of laughter to the clever But the elder insisted and he began his discourse in this way: "In the name of Jesus Christ, O philosopher," he said, "listen to the truth. There is one God who made heaven and earth, who gave breath to man whom he had formed from the mud of the earth and who created everything what is seen and what is not seen with the power of his word and established it with the sanctification of his spirit This word and wisdom whom we call Son took pity on the errors of humankind was born of a virgin by suffering death freed us from everlasting death and by his resurrection conferred on us eternal life Him we await as the judge to come of all that we do. Do you believe that this is so, O philosopher?" But he as though he had nothing whatever that he could say in opposition to this so astonished was he at the power of what had been said could only reply to it all that he thought that it was so and that what had been said was the only truth. Then the elder said "If you believe that this is so arise follow me to the church and receive the seal of this faith." The philosopher turning to his disciples and to those who had gathered to listen said "Listen, O learned men: so long as it was words with which I had to deal, I set words against words and what was said I refuted with my rhetoric. But when power rather than words came out of the mouth of the speaker words could not withstand power nor could man oppose God. And therefore if any one of you was able to feel in what was said what I felt, let him believe in Christ and follow this old man in whom God has spoken." And thus the philosopher became a Christian and rejoiced at last to have been vanquished.',
'source' => 'https://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/rufinus_he.html',
'father' => 'Rufinus',
),
60 =>
array (
'quote' => 'You suppose that men like me are unhappy; we regard you as more unhappy still. Thus we reciprocate each other’s thoughts, and appear to each other mutually insane.',
'source' => 'https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf206.v.XLV.html',
'father' => 'Jerome',
),
61 =>
array (
'quote' => 'Who also can be unaware that "the things which are impossible with men are possible with God?" "The foolish things also of the world hath God chosen to confound the things which are wise." We have read it all. Therefore, they argue, it was not difficult for God to make Himself both a Father and a Son, contrary to the condition of things among men. For a barren woman to have a child against nature was no difficulty with God; nor was it for a virgin to conceive. Of course nothing is "too hard for the Lord." But if we choose to apply this principle so extravagantly and harshly in our capricious imaginations, we may then make out God to have done anything we please, on the ground that it was not impossible for Him to do it. We must not, however, because He is able to do all things suppose that He has actually done what He has not done. But we must inquire whether He has really done it. God could, if He had liked, have furnished man with wings to fly with, just as He gave wings to kites. We must not, however, run to the conclusion that He did this because He was able to do it. He might also have extinguished Praxeas and all other heretics at once; it does not follow, however, that He did, simply because He was able. For it was necessary that there should be both kites and heretics; it was necessary also that the Father should be crucified.',
'source' => 'https://historicalchristian.faith/by_father.php?file=Tertullian%2FAgainst%2520Praxeas.html',
'father' => 'Tertullian',
),
62 =>
array (
'quote' => 'But, Marcion, consider well this Scripture, if indeed you have not erased it: "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise."',
'source' => 'https://historicalchristian.faith/by_father.php?file=Tertullian%2FOn%2520the%2520Flesh%2520of%2520Christ.html',
'father' => 'Tertullian',
),
63 =>
array (
'quote' => 'For I am ashamed even of this necessity, that while I clean out the fellow\'s sh*t-filled mouth I see my own-fingers covered with sh*t. But who can endure such a scoundrel who shows himself possessed by a thousand vices and tormented by a legion of demons and yet stupidly boasts thus: "The holy fathers have all erred. The whole church has often erred. My teaching cannot err, because I am most certain that my teaching is not my own but Christ\'s..."',
'source' => 'https://essentialmore.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/A-Response-to-Luther-Book-1.pdf',
'father' => 'Thomas More',
),
);
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<h1 class="display-4 mb-4">Explore Ancient Christian Wisdom</h1>
<p class="lead mb-0">Discover how the early Christians, separated from Christ by mere generations, interpreted the same Bible we read today.</p>
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Why should you care how the early Christian Church interpreted the scriptures?
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<p class="quote">Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.</p>
<p class="quote">All contemporary writers share to some extent the contemporary outlook—even those, like myself, who seem most opposed to it. Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny.</p>
<p class="quote">They thought that they were as completely opposed as two sides could be, but in fact they were all the time secretly united—united with each other and against earlier and later ages—by a great mass of common assumptions.</p>
<p class="quote">We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century—the blindness about which posterity will ask, 'But how could they have thought that?'—lies where we have never suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement between Hitler and President Roosevelt or between Mr. H. G. Wells and Karl Barth.</p>
<p class="quote">None of us can fully escape this blindness, but we shall certainly increase it, and weaken our guard against it, if we read only modern books. Where they are true they will give us truths which we half knew already. Where they are false they will aggravate the error with which we are already dangerously ill.</p>
<p class="quote">The only palliative is to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, and this can be done only by reading old books. Not, of course, that there is any magic about the past. People were no cleverer then than they are now; they made as many mistakes as we. But not the same mistakes.</p>
<p class="quote">They will not flatter us in the errors we are already committing; and their own errors, being now open and palpable, will not endanger us. Two heads are better than one, not because either is infallible, but because they are unlikely to go wrong in the same direction.</p>
<p class="quote">To be sure, the books of the future would be just as good a corrective as the books of the past, but unfortunately we cannot get at them.</p>
<p class="text-end">- <strong><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/20070222105839/https://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/history/ath-inc.htm' target='_blank'>C. S. Lewis</a></strong></p>
<hr>
<p class="quote">Can any who spend several years in those seats of learning, be excused, if they do not add to that of the languages and sciences, the knowledge of the Fathers - the most authentic commentators on Scripture, as being both nearest the fountain, and eminently endued with that Spirit by whom all Scripture was given. It will be easily perceived, I speak chiefly of those who wrote before the Council of Nice. But who would not likewise desire to have some acquaintance with those that followed them with St. Chrysostom, Basil, Jerome, Austin; and, above all, the man of a broken heart, Ephraim Syrus...</p>
<p class="text-end">- <strong><a href='http://wesley.nnu.edu/john-wesley/an-address-to-the-clergy/' target='_blank'>John Wesley</a></strong></p>
<hr>
<p class="quote">What did the Fathers do except seek and present the clear and open testimonies of Scripture?</p>
<p class="text-end">- <strong><a href='https://www.academia.edu/49575464/Excerpts_and_Comments_on_Luthers_Against_Latomus_Academia_' target='_blank'>Martin Luther</a></strong></p>
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<p class="quote">I have gone into this matter at some length... to show the difficulty in Holy Scripture. Men who altogether lack experience lay special claim to understanding it apart from the grace of God and the scholarship of preceding generations.</p>
<p class="text-end">- <strong><a href='https://www.ccel.org/ccel/pearse/morefathers/files/jerome_daniel_02_text.htm' target='_blank'>Jerome</a></strong></p>
<hr>
<p class="quote">I have thought it my duty to quote all these passages from the writings of both Latin and Greek authors who, being in the Catholic Church before our time, have written commentaries on the divine oracles, in order that our brother, if he hold any different opinion from theirs, may know that it becomes him, laying aside all bitterness of controversy, and preserving or reviving fully the gentleness of brotherly love, to investigate with diligent and calm consideration either what he must learn from others, or what others must learn from him. For the reasonings of any men whatsoever, even though they be Catholics, and of high reputation, are not to be treated by us in the same way as the canonical Scriptures are treated. We are at liberty, without doing any violence to the respect which these men deserve, to condemn and reject anything in their writings, if perchance we shall find that they have entertained opinions differing from that which others or we ourselves have, by the divine help, discovered to be the truth. I deal thus with the writings of others, and I wish my intelligent readers to deal thus with mine.</p>
<p class="text-end">- <strong><a href='https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/1102148.htm' target='_blank'>Augustine</a></strong></p>
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