patristic authors also called church fathers, a group of early Christian authors originally so named because they were considered the ‘fathers’ (patres) of the orthodox Christian churches. The term is now used more broadly to designate the Christian writers, orthodox or heterodox, who were active in the first six centuries or so of the Christian era. The chronological division is quite flexible, and it is regularly moved several centuries later for particular purposes. Moreover, the study of these writers has traditionally been divided by languages, of which the principal ones are Greek, Latin, and Syriac. The often sharp divisions among patristic scholarships in the different languages are partly a reflection of the different histories of the regional churches, partly a reflection of the sociology of modern scholarship.
Greeks. The patristic period in Greek is usually taken as extending from the first writers after the New Testament to such figures as Maximus the Confessor (579/580–662) or John of Damascus (c.650–c.750). The period is traditionally divided around the Council of Nicea (325). Pre- Nicean Greek authors of importance to the history of philosophy include Irenaeus (130/140– after 198?), Clement of Alexandria (c.150–after 215), and Origen (c.180–c.254). Important Nicean and post-Nicean authors include Athanasius (c.295–373); the Cappadocians, i.e., Gregory of Nazianzus (c.330–90), Basil of Cesarea (c.330–79), and his brother, Gregory of Nyssa (335/340–c.394); and John Chrysostom (c.350– 407). Philosophical topics and practices are constantly engaged by these Greek authors. Justin Martyr (second century), e.g., describes his conversion to Christianity quite explicitly as a transit through lower forms of philosophy into the true philosophy. Clement of Alexandria, again, uses the philosophic genre of the protreptic and a host of ancient texts to persuade his pagan readers that they ought to come to Christianity as to the true wisdom. Origen devotes his Against Celsus to the detailed rebuttal of one pagan philosopher’s attack on Christianity. More importantly, if more subtly, the major works of the Cappadocians appropriate and transform the teachings of any number of philosophic authors – Plato and the Neoplatonists in first place, but also Aristotle, the Stoics, and Galen. Latins. The Latin churches came to count four post-Nicean authors as its chief teachers: Ambrose (337/339–97), Jerome (c.347–419), Augustine (354–430), and Gregory the Great (c.540–604). Other Latin authors of philosophical interest include Tertullian (fl. c.195–c.220), Lactantius (c.260–c.330), Marius Victorinus (280/285–before 386), and Hilary of Poitiers (fl. 356–64). The Latin patristic period is typically counted from the second century to the fifth or sixth, i.e., roughly from Tertullian to Boethius. The Latin authors share with their Greek contemporaries a range of relations to the pagan philosophic schools, both as rival institutions and as sources of useful teaching. Tertullian’s Against the Nations and Apology, for example, take up pagan accusations against Christianity and then counterattack a number of pagan beliefs, including philosophical ones. By contrast, the writings of Marius Victorinus, Ambrose, and Augustine enact transformations of philosophic teachings, especially from the Neoplatonists. Because philosophical erudition was generally not as great among the Latins as among the Greeks, they were both more eager to accept philosophical doctrines and freer in improvising variations on them. See also AUGUSTINE , BOETHIUS , CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA , GREGORY OF NYSSA , TER – TULLIA. M.D.J.