Primary Authors & Sources
ANFA-101 assigns the Ante-Nicene Fathers collection — primary voices from the generations nearest the apostles, selected for ante-nicene doctrines from apostles to origen. Alexander Roberts, ed. opens the Ante-Nicene Fathers collection, preserving the earliest Christian writers who stand closest to the apostles and the first doctrinal controversies, notably in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus and Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian,….
Taken together, these readings form a coherent conversation across centuries — students encounter real arguments, not flattened summaries. The required corpus for this course totals 5 assigned works with 63 supplemental volumes available in the library, all integrated with assessments in the BCFK learning platform.
What You Will Study
Students read the Ante-Nicene Fathers from the apostolic fathers through Origen, engaging martyrdom accounts, early apologetics, liturgical fragments, and the first major doctrinal disputes before Nicaea. Primary texts include the Didache, letters of Ignatius and Clement, Justin Martyr's Apologies, Irenaeus against Gnosticism, and Origen's exegetical and speculative works. Attention falls on how the church under persecution articulated the rule of faith, defended Scripture, and began formulating Trinitarian and Christological convictions. Students compare patristic exegesis with later Reformed hermeneutics while honoring these writers as witnesses within the ancient catholic tradition. Weekly reading assignments from the Ante-Nicene corpus on the BCFK master list pair primary sources with guided reflection on how apostolic succession, episcopal office, and martyr piety took shape before imperial patronage.
Course Objectives
Course objectives include identifying major ante-Nicene authors and their historical contexts, tracing the development of core doctrines under persecution and heresy, evaluating continuities and discontinuities between early and later orthodoxy, and reading patristic texts on their own terms rather than through modern polemical lenses. Students will summarize key arguments in apologetic and anti-heretical literature, compare early interpretations of creation, fall, and redemption, and produce written analyses in clear confessional prose. The course aims to cultivate patristic literacy as a foundation for Protestant engagement with the ancient church. Students will also assess how second-century rule-of-faith formulations anticipate later Nicene vocabulary while remaining exegetically tethered to the Old and New Testaments as the church's final authority.
Ministry & Life Application
Patristic reading anchors Reformed and evangelical believers in the faith once delivered, equipping ministers to teach with historical depth and ecumenical honesty. Graduates recognize which contemporary claims are genuinely novel and which echo ancient errors already answered by the fathers. This course strengthens apologetic witness, enriches preaching with the voices of the martyrs, and prepares students for thoughtful dialogue with Catholics and Orthodox Christians who share these sources. House church elders gain confidence that Protestant faith rests upon, not apart from, the earliest Christian testimony. In mentor-led house church settings across the Florida Keys, this patristic foundation helps leaders explain Protestant continuity with the ancient church when members encounter Catholic or Orthodox claims about tradition and authority.