Newman observed that to be "deep in history is to cease to be Protestant" and that would certainly be my personal experience.  Reading the Fathers challenged my evangelical Protestant assumptions and led me to start to engage Church history.  Before that, I had held a similar position to that of Sally, Charlie Brown’s sister, who, upon being told to write an essay on "church history," penned: "our pastor was born in 1930."  I had no idea of anything or anyone outside of my local church, not even my denomination.

This discovery of the riches of the past led me to Anglicanism and ultimately to the Catholic Church where I am today.  I am consistently amazed at how few Christians know anything about the history of their Faith.  If this were civics and if the lacking knowledge were about our nation’s history, most would be rightly appalled.  Yet, for many Christians, ignorance of Church history, is not only accepted, but encouraged as a way to be a better Christian.  After all, why bother consulting our spiritual forebears when all that matters is the individual and God at the present?

The writings of the Church tugged at my conscience and challenged what I had always accepted to be the norm.  Why all this information?  I’m going to start posting excerpts from the Church Fathers and other Christian writers through the ages on this blog, in the hopes that the challenges, joys, and riches I found in them will be of benefit to others.