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Title: Ante-Nicene Fathers: 10 Volumes by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, Philip Schaff, Henry Wace ISBN: 1-56563-082-3 Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc. Pub. Date: 01 June, 1994 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 10 List Price(USD): $299.00

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Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (4 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Skip the footnotes
Comment: The writings themselves are excellent. The print is often hard to read and the typeface varies from section to section. The introductions and footnotes show the editors biases and are best skipped -- let the writings speak for themselves.

Rating: 5
Summary: Every Christian should read this
Comment: This is the (basically) complete set of the Early church writings up until 325 A.D. These 10 volumes contain quite a lot of material. Volume 10 is actually an index of all of the earlier books. The complete works of Justin, Clement, Athenagoras, Ignatius, etc are found within. I agree with the other poster that there are some problems. The issue of new texts discovered is a big one. Since the time this series was published many new texts have been found, such as the Gospel of Thomas and 2 works by Origen. So that is an issue. Also the way they put Clement of Alexandria's third book in Latin is silly today. Luckily I managed to find another translation that had it. The third problem is the English is pretty stagnant at times. Its very stiff and complex at times, but I actually have come to like it (don't ask me why!). But I am still giving this 5 stars because the set is fairly affordable, and there is a lot of great stuff in here for the price. Virtually every pre-Nicene writing, from the Didache to Alexander of Alexandria's letters to Arius, is in here. I would never be without this set.

Rating: 4
Summary: Best collection, but needs to be updated.
Comment: This 10-volume set is a treasure trove of the writings of the early church translated into English, from the Apostolic Fathers to the Nicene Council. The problem with it is that it is only a reprint of a collection originally published in 1885. Because of this it carries over many of the pruderies Alexandria's Miscellanies (in volume 2 of this set) is printed only in enters upon the refutation of the false-Gnostics and their licentious tenets. Professing a stricter rule to begin with, and despising the ordinances of the Creator, their result was the grossest immorality in practice. The melancholy consequences of an enforced celibacy are, here, all forseen and foreshown; and this Book, though necessarily offensive to our Christian tastes, is most useful as a commentary upon the history of monasticism, and the celibacy of priests, in the Western churches. The resolution of the Edinburgh editors to give this Book to scholars _only_, in the Latin, is probably wise." In other words, because it may corrupt our Christian morals, we won't print it in the venacular, but instead keep it only in the hands of professors. This editorial decision was disgustingly illiberal; a scholar should make all information accessible. Besides, Clement of Alexandria isn't considered a heretic; he's one of the official Church Fathers. Now a decision like that may have been acceptable in 1885, but it can scarcely be defended today. I do not see what could have kept this set's reprinters from providing a translation of Book III, if only as an appendix. I have not noticed any other example of suppression in these volumes, although the fact that there is even one instance is disturbing. This only serves to convince me that a new, fresh edition of these writers is needed. Many new writings have been discovered in the century since, including complete books by Irenaeus, Hippolytus, Melito of Sardis - this alone makes a new collection desirable. In the late nineteenth century all kinds of collections of these early writers were being published - why not now?

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