Patristik

Patristik, or patristics, is the scholarly study of the Church Fathers, early Christian writers and theologians who helped shape Christian doctrine, practice, and biblical interpretation from roughly the second to the eighth century. The field investigates how these figures formed creeds, engaged in doctrinal controversy, interpreted Scripture, and influenced liturgical life and church organization. It also examines the social, cultural, and philosophical contexts in which they wrote.

Primary sources in patristics include sermons, letters, treatises, apologies, and commentaries. The discipline relies on Greek and Latin texts and also engages with material in Syriac, Coptic, Armenian, and Georgian. Notable authors commonly studied include Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Augustine, and Jerome, among others. The aim is to reconstruct the original meanings, historical settings, and the development of Christian doctrine and practice.

Methodologically, patristics employs textual criticism, philology, historical analysis, and literary study to explore topics such as trinitarian theology, Christology, soteriology, the formation of the biblical canon, biblical exegesis, ethics, asceticism, apologetics, and the early ecumenical councils. The field also considers how patristic writings were received and interpreted in later theology and within different Christian traditions.

Patristics sits at the intersection of theology, church history, philosophy, and biblical studies. It illuminates the transition from biblical and early Christian sources to medieval theology, and it continues to inform ecumenical dialogue and contemporary Christian thought through the enduring influence of the Church Fathers.