Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,

so that you may be able to prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Romans 12 2. This is resistance and reformation on the Fight, laugh, Feast Network.

Like so many of the heroes of history, the patristics are often invoked but seldom actually read. They're often referenced, but

seldom actually quoted. Though they are at the heart of traditionalist sloganeering, they have, in fact,

only rarely actually contributed to the traditions that they supposedly have inspired.

Today, they are the great unknowns, these church fathers.

Even in those communions, which place much emphasis on apostolic succession,

the Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and Copt.

There is scant knowledge of those who succeeded the apostles, their lives and words,

and works, are seldom more than anecdotally revered.

The irony of this goes beyond the obvious. Theoretically, the patristics continue to be

appealing to us. We repeat the pious reforming litany. Let's go back to the pattern of the early church.

Let's restore the integrity of primordial worship, and let's strip away the accumulated

layers of traditionalist practices, rituals, and ceremonies. Somehow, we imagine that the patristic

support us in this. We suppose them to be simplistic, primitive, and primal, so we're often

surprised to discover them to actually be complicated, refined, and mature. The fact is, the writings

of the patristics are immensely and imminently readable, and widely available.

The earliest Christians were both literate and literary.

They were people of the book and of books.

As a result, their refined letters, sermons, tracks, commentaries, manifestos,

crados, dialogues, proverbs, epigrams, and sagas were carefully preserved, anthologized,

...