Through the Church Fathers

C. Michael Patton
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Join Through the Church Fathers, a year-long journey into the writings of the early Church Fathers, thoughtfully curated by C. Michael Patton. Each episode features daily readings from key figures like Clement, Augustine, and Aquinas, accompanied by insightful commentary to help you engage with the foundational truths of the Christian faith. Join Our Community: Read along and engage with others on this journey through the Church Fathers. Visit our website. Support the Podcast: Help sustain this work and gain access to exclusive content by supporting C. Michael Patton on Patreon at patreon.com/cmichaelpatton. Dive Deeper into Theology: Explore high-quality courses taught by the world’s greatest scholars at Credo Courses. Visit credocourses.com. Let’s journey through the wisdom of the Church Fathers together—daily inspiration to deepen your faith and understanding of the Christian tradition.

  1. 3h ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 31

    Charity is the rule that decides when a command is a figure, and eternity is a will that does not change. Augustine says a figurative expression is to be turned until it establishes the reign of love, and if the literal sense already does that, it is not a figure. A command that seems to enjoin a crime, or to forbid a kindness, is figurative. Eating the flesh is a share in the sufferings. Coals of fire are the groans of penitence. Commands given to a lower state are not canceled by a higher one. What was allowed in the Old Testament for those times is not a habit for these, and one man may use many wives with chastity while another uses one with lust. In the Confessions he has been told, in the inner ear, that God alone is immortal, and that every nature which is not God is still from God. Only what is not, is not from Him. Sin is the motion of the will toward what is less, and no sin hurts God or disturbs His rule. Aquinas asks how the one who is equal can still be subject. He is subject, and He prays, and He mediates, as man. He is priest forever, offering once, the virtue of the offering remaining. He is Son by nature, not by adoption. The humanity is adored because it is the humanity of the Son, not because flesh is divine. Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 3, Chapters 15–18 (Sections 23–27) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 11 (Section 11) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 20–26 Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #PriesthoodOfChrist #Charity #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 31

  2. 1d ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 30

    What looks like a sin in a holy man may be a sign, and a custom is not yet a law. Augustine says the deeds ascribed to God and the saints, which seem wicked to the inexperienced, are figurative, and the kernel is charity. It is not the use of a thing that is blamed, but the lust of the user. The ointment on the Lord’s feet is not the ointment of a banquet. Hosea’s keeping company with a harlot is not abandoned manners. The plurality of wives among the fathers was blameless then, for the sake of offspring, and could not be done now except through lust. Men who know only their own customs conclude that there is no absolute right. The precept stands against them: whatever you would that men should do to you, do you even so to them. In the Confessions he begs the Truth, not his own darkness, to speak. He went astray and remembered. He returns burning to the fountain, and the words of the books are very deep. Aquinas asks what may be said of the one who is both. God is man and man is God, because the Person is one and the natures are not mixed. There is one being, two wills without contrariety, and two operations concurring in the one work. The human action merited, for Himself and for the members. Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 3, Chapters 12–14 (Sections 18–22) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 10 (Section 10) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 16–19 Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #CommunicationOfProperties #Charity #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 30

  3. 2d ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 29

    A man can be free while he is still under a sign, and a creature can share eternity without being eternal. Augustine says bondage to a sign is the use of it without knowing what it signifies. The patriarchs were spiritual and free even while the signs were still imposed, because they honored what the signs referred to. After the resurrection a few rites remain, baptism and the body and blood of the Lord, easy to perform and plain in what they mean. A phrase is figurative when, taken literally, it cannot be referred to purity of life or soundness of doctrine. Scripture enjoins nothing but charity and condemns nothing but lust. Severity ascribed to God, when the sense is plain, is not to be allegorized away. It pulls down the dominion of lust. In the Confessions the Spirit is silent about days when He says that in the Beginning God created heaven and earth. The heaven of heavens is an intellectual creature, not co-eternal, yet clinging to God so as to surpass the rolling change of times. The formless earth is not numbered among the days, because where there is no shape, nothing comes or goes. Aquinas asks what power and what weakness were in the Christ who came. The soul was not omnipotent. It worked as the instrument of the Word. Hunger, pain, and death were assumed, not owed. Sin and ignorance were not. Sorrow was real, and the will that bore it was not captive to it. ### Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 3, Chapters 9–11 (Sections 13–17) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 9 (Section 9) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 13–15 --- ### Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #CharityAndLust #DefectsOfChrist #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 29

  4. 3d ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 28

    To take a sign for the thing it signifies is a kind of slavery, and a world can be shaped only out of what is almost nothing. Augustine warns that the letter kills when a figurative word is read as if it were proper. Sabbath and sacrifice then stay on the day and the victim, and the mind never lifts. The bondage of Israel was not the bondage of the nations. Their signs, however misunderstood, still held the one God before them, and those who believed were near enough to spiritual things to become the first church. The Gentiles, even when they called an idol only a sign of the sea, were still worshipping the creature. Christ freed the one by interpreting the signs, and the other by clearing the useless signs away. In the Confessions the heaven of heavens is already for God. The earth given to the sons of men was invisible and without form, a deep almost nothing, yet able to be formed. Times are numbered only where shapes change. Aquinas asks how the soul of Christ knew. It saw the divine essence and did not comprehend it, knew by infused species from the first moment, and advanced only in what experience drew from the senses. Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 3, Chapters 5–8 (Sections 9–12) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 8 (Section 8) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 9–12 Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #KnowledgeOfChrist #LetterAndSpirit #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 28

  5. 4d ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 27

    A question can be asked so that the answer is already No, and a world can be made only if it is not made out of God. Augustine takes the ambiguities of pronunciation next. The rule of faith will not let “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” be read as if God and Christ were the accusers. Inquiry and interrogative are not the same. A short syllable and a long one can hide bone under mouth, and the Greek, or a barbarism clearer than good Latin, settles it. Case, context, and the original tongue leave very little ambiguity in proper words that cannot be cleared. In the Confessions he says the heaven and the earth came from God, and not out of God. Had they come out of Him, they would have been equal to the Only-begotten. There was nothing else from which they could be made. One is near to Him. The other is near to nothing. Aquinas asks what filled the soul that was assumed. Besides the grace of union there was habitual grace from the first moment, not measured, and not increased. That same grace, overflowing, makes Him Head of the Church. ### Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 3, Chapters 3–4 (Sections 6–8) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 7 (Section 7) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 7–8 (Articles 1–13 and 1–8) --- ### Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #GraceOfChrist #Creation #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 27

  6. 5d ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 26

    A mark in the wrong place can make the Word something other than God, and a mind full of pictures can fail to think what has no picture. Augustine opens the third book of On Christian Doctrine by sending the prepared reader to the ambiguities of Scripture. Where the words themselves are unclear, punctuation and pronunciation are tested first by the rule of faith, then by the context, and, if both are silent, left to the reader’s discretion. The heretical pointing that stops before “the Word was God” is refused. Paul’s strait between two is settled by the word that follows. In the Confessions he confesses that he once called matter formless while still filling it with foul and horrible forms. He could sooner think that the formless was nothing than conceive what lay between form and nothing. What he reached was mutability, able to receive shapes, and already something. Aquinas asks what the Son assumed, and in what order. A true earthly body, and a true human mind. What was not assumed would not have been healed. Soul and flesh were taken at one instant, the soul the medium of congruity, not a step that came earlier in time. Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 3, Chapters 1–2 (Sections 1–5) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 6 (Section 6) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 5–6 (Articles 1–4 and 1–4) Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #Incarnation #RuleOfFaith #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 26

  7. 6d ago

    Through the Church Fathers: October 25

    What the heathen said truly was never theirs to keep, and what has no form cannot be pictured by a mind that wants a picture. Augustine tells the Christian to take the gold and silver of pagan learning, the true things and the useful precepts, and turn them to the preaching of the gospel, as Israel took the vessels of Egypt. The same learning will puff a man up unless charity builds him. Christ is the passover. The meek herb marks the door. Scripture then outruns every book brought out of Egypt: what is hurtful is condemned there, what is useful is already there, and much is there that can be learned nowhere else. In the Confessions he tries to say what formless matter was. Thought finds it is neither an intelligible form, such as life or justice, nor anything the senses can reach. The mind knows it by knowing that it is ignorant. Aquinas asks who assumed, and what was assumed. The whole Trinity caused the work. Only the Son terminated it. He took human nature to His own Person, not a man already existing, and not a second person beside Himself. Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 40–42 (Sections 60–63) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 5 (Section 5) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Questions 3–4 (Articles 1–8 and 1–6) Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #Incarnation #SpoilingTheEgyptians #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 25

  8. Oct 24

    Through the Church Fathers: October 24

    A man can learn the rules of argument and still miss the truth they serve, and a word can name what has no shape of its own. Augustine warns the studious not to mistake dialectic, rhetoric, or the science of number for the secret of a happy life. The rules are true, and number was discovered rather than invented, but the man who will not trace that truth back to God may be learned and still not wise. What is useful among the heathen is to be taken soberly. What binds a man to demons is to be refused. In the Confessions he asks what name can carry formless matter to a duller mind, and he answers with the earth and the deep, lowest and least beautiful, invisible and without shape, out of which the shapely world was made. Aquinas then asks how the Word took flesh. Not by mixture, and not by a second person set beside the Son. Two natures remain. One Person subsists in both, by grace, with no merits going before. Today’s Readings: Augustine — On Christian Doctrine, Book 2, Chapters 37–39 (Sections 55–59) Augustine — The Confessions, Book 12, Chapter 4 (Section 4) Thomas Aquinas — Summa Theologica, Part 3, Question 2 (Articles 1–12) Explore the Project: Through the Church Fathers – https://www.throughthechurchfathers.com Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/cmichaelpatton Credo Courses – https://www.credocourses.com Credo Ministries – https://www.credoministries.org #ThroughTheChurchFathers #Augustine #OnChristianDoctrine #Confessions #Aquinas #SummaTheologica #Incarnation #HypostaticUnion #ChurchFathers

    Through the Church Fathers: October 24
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Join Through the Church Fathers, a year-long journey into the writings of the early Church Fathers, thoughtfully curated by C. Michael Patton. Each episode features daily readings from key figures like Clement, Augustine, and Aquinas, accompanied by insightful commentary to help you engage with the foundational truths of the Christian faith. Join Our Community: Read along and engage with others on this journey through the Church Fathers. Visit our website. Support the Podcast: Help sustain this work and gain access to exclusive content by supporting C. Michael Patton on Patreon at patreon.com/cmichaelpatton. Dive Deeper into Theology: Explore high-quality courses taught by the world’s greatest scholars at Credo Courses. Visit credocourses.com. Let’s journey through the wisdom of the Church Fathers together—daily inspiration to deepen your faith and understanding of the Christian tradition.

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  • Creator
    C. Michael Patton
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    708
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © C Michael Patton 2024
  • Show Website
    Through the Church Fathers