The teaching about the grace of God in the works of the ancient saints. Fathers and Teachers of the Church until St. Augustine

Contents Introduction. General teaching about God the Sanctifier. The doctrine of God's grace in creation is holy. fathers and teachers of the church until bl. Augustine. The teaching of Holy Scripture about the grace of God. I. In the works of the apostolic men II. In the writings of ancient Christian apologists III. St. Irenaeus of Lyons IV. Tertullian V. St. Cyprian of Carthage VI. Clement of Alexandria. VII. Origen. VIII. St. Cyril of Jerusalem IX. St. Basil the Great X. St. Gregory the Theologian XI. St. Gregory of Nyssa XII. Ave. Macarius of Egypt. XIII. St. John Chrysostom. Conclusion. A collection of data for the doctrine of the grace of God in the considered ancient patristic works. The work that is offered to the attention of readers was first intended to be given the character of a theoretical and systematic presentation of the doctrine of the grace of God, in accordance with which an introduction was given, setting out the “General Doctrine of God the Sanctifier.” It was intended to present in a systematic manner the entire range of truths included in the dogmatic teaching about the grace of God. But first it was necessary to clarify the concept of grace, indicate the various meanings that were associated with this concept at different times, and for this purpose present a brief outline of the disclosure of this concept in the ancient patristic period, and then in the Middle Ages among Western scholastics and in subsequent times. However, as we delved deeper into the study of the works of the ancient fathers, such an abundance of material turned out to be available and such interest in the subject was aroused by the obtained data that we were forced to completely change our original intention and give our work the character of a historical and dogmatic study, limiting it, moreover, to the period of the first four centuries up to the 19th century. Augustine. The results of our work, obtained through research and presented in the conclusion (“Collection of data for the doctrine of the grace of God in the ancient creations of God”), reconciled us with the failure to implement our original plans and intentions. We even dare to think that if we can bring any benefit with our feasible work, then we have achieved this goal much more accurately by following the path that we actually walked, and not the one that we originally intended to follow. By the way, we allow ourselves to recommend that readers begin reading our book precisely with the conclusion - the “Code” and the developed ancient patristic “formula” of the doctrine of the grace of God. The reader's attention will then be suitably excited and attracted to the numerous particulars of the inquiry; the impression of episodic presentation (on individual fathers) will be significantly weakened: individual fathers will appear, then, as if in stages of a gradual disclosure of the subject; reading the book will be a test of the author’s final conclusions - in conclusion. The author deliberately avoided using foreign manuals - out of a desire to maintain complete independence in the study of the subject, which, in his opinion, is certainly necessary for an Orthodox theologian, especially in this department of dogmatic theology, as expressed at the beginning of the work (in the introduction). The work of studying numerous and, in general, their composition multi-volume fatherly works was greatly facilitated by the Russian translations that existed for most of them. The existence of such translations, however, did not spare us from diligently studying the original texts of our fathers’ works. At the same time, we cannot help but express our regret that we did not quote the Russian translations next to the quotes from the edition of Min’s “Patrology”. This happened because at the beginning, when studying the few and not extensive works of the first fathers (men of the apostles, ancient apologists, St. Irenaeus), it seemed to us completely unnecessary to quote Russian translations, since it is very easy for the reader, and from our citation (according to the editorship of Min), to find well-known passages of the fathers’ works in these translations. And then, when we entered the 4th century and began to study the multi-volume works of the fathers of this century, although we began to recognize the need for double citation, due to consistency we continued to adhere to the system once adopted in this regard. Regarding Russian translations, let us note that among them, translations made under the Moscow spirit stand out sharply for their high merits. Academy and precisely those that were published under the editorship (works of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory the Theologian) of the unforgettable professor Archpriest P.S. Delitsin, for many years of his long professorial service selflessly devoted to the translation work and, moreover, a deep connoisseur of the spirit and language of the ancient fathers. These translations in the full sense of the word can be called exemplary; other translations can only approach them to a greater or lesser extent. You might be interested in: