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Patristic Research

Patristic Research

Category-by-category study of which tradition (Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist, General Baptist, Anabaptist; classic confessional formulations only, see notes/confessions.md) has held closest to the early church fathers and Scripture.

Method

  • Primary sources only: patristic writings (through John of Damascus, c. 750) and Holy Scripture. A tradition’s own claims to be original carry no weight.
  • Every claim is tested against Scripture exegetically: original Greek/Hebrew, culture, and context. English quotes use the LSB.
  • Fathers are read in English translation (Schaff ANF/NPNF etc.), with Greek and Latin checked on key passages.
  • Later development is weighed: legitimate clarification versus departure. For each camp, record when its “clarity” on a question came into view.
  • Splits and unclear verdicts are allowed.

Layout

  • notes/ working summaries per father/source (the paper trail)

  • doctrines/ the research, organised by tier (first-, second-, third-order) and doctrine; each doctrine has a page with its verdicts and a reasoning.md with the numbered steps (structure)

  • notes/shared/ notes shared by the doctrines that came from one former category, including post-750 development

  • docs/ conventions for front matter, links, anchors, citations; research backlog of candidate clarifying questions, by priority

Doctrines by tier

Full map of all doctrines by tier: doctrines. How the tiers were set: triage.

First-order (16 of 16 researched)

Second-order (24 of 24 researched)

Third-order (27 of 27 researched)