In the last issue of this article, I began a presentation of the questions that the Church pondered in seven basic theological areas. The Fathers answers to the questions in each of these seven areas have formed the foundation of the theology that our Church embraces. I presented the first four areas and the questions in each. The last three areas are:

• The question of humanity: What is a human being? What does the Scripture mean when it states that human beings have been created in the image of God? How and to what extend has sin affected and infected human nature?
• The question of the church: What is the church? How is the church related to Christ? What is the church’s task on earth? How does one enter the church? What are the church’s marks? How is the life of the church nourished and strengthened? What are the dangers the church can expect to encounter in its mission and ministry on earth?
• The question of the future: What will happen in the future? When will Christ return? What is the resurrection of the dead? What will occur at the last judgment?

Using these seven areas and the questions that are a part of them, I would like to begin sharing how the “Fathers” of the Church” struggled to find answers to all the questions that these areas raised.

I would first, however, like to present some ideas about who we consider the Fathers of the Church. The idea of a “father in the faith” has a rich and fruitful background in the Bible and in the ancient world. Paul, for example, describes himself as a “father” to the members of the Corinthian congregation, distinguishing the role of a father from that of a mere guardian. The term father also occurred in rabbinic, Cynic and Pythagorean circles. Early Christian writers such as Clement of Rome, Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria all employ the term. Irenaeus speaks, not only of the student as one “who has received the teaching from another’s mouth” as a son, but also of one’s instructor as a “father.” A father in the faith, then, is someone who is familiar with the teachings concerning the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and can be trusted to hand on faithfully and correctly the tradition that he himself has already received. Rootedness in the gospel and indeed trustworthiness of character are non- negotiable in the life of a father. There were also trusted mothers in the faith.