Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ... Abt. VIII.--Lives of the Fathers; Sketches of Church History in Biography. By F. W. Farrar, D.D., F.R.S. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1889. IN these two volumes Archdeacon Farrar has carried to a further stage the important literary enterprise which was commenced, some twenty years ago, by his 'Life of Christ.' Step by step, he has endeavoured to give an account, at once learned and popular, of the origin of Christianity and of its early history. The 'Life of Christ' was followed by the 'Life and Works of St. Paul;' and this was succeeded by the 'Early Days of Christianity, ' dealing with the period from the martyrdom of St. Paul to the death of St. John. The present work opens with St. Ignatius, at the commencement of the second century, and concludes with St. Chrysostom and St. Augustine, in whom the great period of early Christian theology reaches its culmination, and practically its close. It is but due to the author that we should offer him not only our hearty congratulations on the completion of such an undertaking, but the expression of our admiration of the energy, ability, and learning which have been displayed in its execution. These eight large volumes--their heaviness, in a physical sense, is one of the few faults we are inclined to find with them-- represent an amount of labour, both in reading and in writing, which might well have taxed the capacities of a man who had nothing else to do. But all the while Archdeacon Farrar has been discharging with conspicuous devotion the duties of a large and poor parish in Westminster; in Westminster Abbey and in St. Margaret's Church he has been one of the most influential preachers of London; and besides all this, he has thrown off from time to time such offshoots of his learning as the' Messages..