The forgotten wisdom of the early church, Father David McConey, is next.

Hello and welcome to focus the Catholic Answers podcast for living,

understanding and defending your Catholic faith. I'm Psy Kellett, your host, and I can remember

the very first time that I heard about the Apostolic fathers. People who knew the Apostles

and then wrote down at least some of what the Apostles had taught them and the faith that they had

received from the Apostles. I thought this is pretty important information. I wish someone had

told me about this. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Those Apostolic fathers

who tell us about the faith that was handed on by the Apostles. Christ unfurled the first 500 years

of Jesus' life is the new book from Father David McConey and he is our guest on this episode. Why

the first 500 years of Jesus' life? Because Jesus' own life is intimately intertwined with the

life of the church and that's certainly something we see when we study the Apostolic fathers.

So if you don't know Father David McConey, he's one of the world's great scholars of St. Augustine.

He's a professor of historical theology at St. Louis University and the director of that school's

Catholic Studies Center. He's also the editor of the homiletic and pastoral review and it was a

real pleasure to get to sit down with him and ask about those early church members who knew the

apostles and wrote down what they learned from them. Father David McConey, St. Louis University,

thank you for being with us. Thanks for having me back, son. I'm I have in my hand your newest book

Christ unfurled the first 500 years of Jesus' life and I must say one of the things that I appreciate

about it is it's a history but it's all as you say also an ecclesiology and the root of an

understanding of the church is understanding that the church is Jesus' life. That's right you

can't separate the two as a faithful Catholic historian that Christ founded his church as an

extension and a continuation of himself to make his presence known for those who couldn't live in

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