Early Church

Friends, it’s not incidental to God that he is a kind and loving Father. That’s not a role he’s stepped into or an act that he tries to pull off while inwardly just being transcendent and disinterested in you.When you pray the Lord’s Prayer and call him “Our Father” or “Abba, Father,” you’re not asking him to pretend for a moment he’s less like God and more like Jesus than he actually is. You’re putting your finger on the very essence of God.

Daniel Hames introduces the early Church Father, Cyril of Alexandria. Cyril’s legacy endures as one of the most influential figures in the development of the doctrine of Christ, shaping the theological landscape of Christianity for centuries to come.

It is necessary not only to pray, but also to pray “as we ought” and to pray for what we ought. Our attempt to understand what we should pray for is deficient unless we also bring to our quest the “as we ought.” Likewise, what use to us is the “as we ought” if we do not know for what we should pray?

Glen Scrivener walks us through how Irenaeus and Athanasius saw creation and salvation as intimately related purposes of God. 

Cyril's Second Letter to Nestorius is an attempt to correct false teaching. Cyril argues for the unity of the person of Christ, examining Christ's pre-existence, birth, suffering, and death.  

Mike Reeves looks at the struggle for orthodox faith in the early centuries of the Church. 

Peter Williams asks whether the biblical canon and Christian theology were invented long after Jesus' life in this apologetic talk. 

Cyril's third letter his colleague, Nestorius, is a more lengthly and robust argument against his false teaching. It includes twelve 'anathemas' (curses) which Cyril hoped Nestorius would accept. 

Mike Reeves introduces us to Athanasius, the great early Church defender of the faith. 

Clinton Arnold examines the discovery in 2006 of the Gospel of Judas, and asks whether Christians should be shocked or unsettled.