Book Notes: Introduction to the Fathers of the Church

The volume aims to be a general introduction to the early fathers of the church. It contains color pictures of painting, maps, manuscripts, and photos, which help liven up the text quite a bit. Each chapter centers around a few church leaders during a given period of time, and ends with selections from the writings of the fathers discussed. It is small and fits nicely in the hands, making it a good volume to carry around with for reading on the go.

The book is fine with the exception of a unusually large number of typos. The very large number of color illustrations make the reading seem like it goes faster and makes the pages much more interesting to look at. For a very basic introduction to some of the Fathers, it is worth picking up. I happened to find it at a local Half Price Books for about $5, and it was definitely worth that price. Amazon does not have it in stock at the time of this writing, though it is selling for about $115 used, which seems completely nuts to me. If you want my copy, I would be very happy to part with mine for only $100!