Early Church Fathers Collection - 50 volumes

Explore your Christian heritage with Biblesoft's groundbreaking electronic collection of the Early Church Fathers, among the first of its kind for Bible Study Software. Covering more than 23,000 pages in print form, this is a rich collection of commentary, theology, apologetics, sermons, letters, history, biography (and more!), covering significant events and milestones of the first 800 years of the Christian Church. The writings of nearly every noteworthy theologian and Church leader from this period, whose writings have survived and were published by the mid-20th century, are included in this collection.

At its base, we have the landmark 38-volume print set, edited by A. Cleveland Coxe and Philip Schaff—the first comprehensive collection available in English, and still one of the most accessible and widely used. The first ten volumes cover the Ante-Nicene Fathers (that is, works primarily written before the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.). The remaining 28 volumes cover the Nicene and Post-Nicene Period (c. 325-787 A.D., primarily the 4th and 5th centuries)—8 are devoted to the works of Augustine, 6 to the sermons of John Chrysostom, and the last fourteen to Eusebius of Caesarea, Jerome, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and many more!

To these we have added a 7-volume Early Church Fathers Supplement Collection—an original Biblesoft compilation of works and translations not found in the standard 38-volume print set. This material has been drawn from the online work of Roger Pearse, as well as other electronic sources.

NOTE: The 38-volume collection is already included in the OneTouch Professional and Discipleship series, as well as in select Version 5 Libraries. For customers with these Libraries, you may wish to purchase the 7-volume Supplemental Collection separately.

Click here to see a detailed listing of the 7-volume Supplemental Collection.

Biblesoft's Customized Index to the Church Fathers
Print versions of the ECF devote the 38th volume to an index of the collection. In the PC Study Bible version you get a specially developed electronic index which functions as the 38th volume. It goes beyond the powerful PC Study Bible topical and searching tools by giving you an overhead view of the whole 800-year early church period by event, such as the Church Counsels, and those involved. The Church Fathers collection index function includes:

• An Alphabetical Index: All 37-volumes of the main collection, and the 7-volume Supplement are listed alphabetically (all names in common transliterated English).
• Chronological Index: All of the 37-volume Fathers and 7-volume Supplements are listed in chronological order to make searching by date or era a snap.
• Lists of Church Councils: Under both the Alphabetical and Chronological indexes you will find lists of the main Patristic-era Councils, which are prominently discussed in the available material.

Bonus Volumes:

As part of this collection, we include 5 added titles to help you study the Church Fathers:

• The Apostolic Fathers (2 volumes)—the standard collection of Christian writings from the period 90-160 A.D., among the very earliest outside of the New Testament, and considered to be the equivalent of authoritative Scripture (or nearly so) in some parts of the Early Church. This includes an edition of the Greek text, along with a translation by Kirsopp Lake.
• Early Christian Fathers, edited by Cyril C. Richardson—a more up-to-date translation of the Apostolic Fathers and several other writings of the Church Fathers.
• Learning Theology with the Church Fathers & Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers, by C. A. Hall (also available separately)—modern and extremely readable studies survey many different aspects of the Church Fathers, including their theology and approach to Scripture.

NOTE: This collection may be bundled together as part of Biblesoft's Early Christianity Collection.