The Ancient Path
Old Lessons from the Church Fathers for a New Life Today
Old Lessons from the Church Fathers for a New Life Today
People often imagine that the Church Fathers looked like their icons and smelled of incense, heroic figures wrapped in fine liturgical vestments of silk and lace, engulfed in billows of smoke from their golden censers. Yet, truth be told, even in their writings they resemble more the tattered cloak of Jesus or the dusty sweat-soaked habits of the early Desert Fathers and Mothers. Theirs is an utterly incarnational spirituality. It is heaven-sent, but it moves forward with both feet on the ground of the earth. In this powerful work, John Michael Talbot tells the story of how these men deeply influenced his spiritual, professional and personal life. Coming to the Christian faith as a young man during the turbulent 1960s, he soon grew a fond of the Church Fathers, including St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Augustine and Gregory the Great and found guidance, reassurance and wisdom on his path to Jesus. "The First Epistle of Saint Peter," writes Talbot, "tells us that we are 'a spiritual temple built of living stones.' The early Church Fathers represent the first rows built upon the foundation of the Apostles. And that sacred building project continues throughout history to our time today. But it rests on the Fathers. It depends on them" -- Book jacket.
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Short Review: I knew that John Michael Talbot was an old school CCM artist that was known for writing theologically sophisticated music, but I had mostly categorized him as another Michael Card and left it at that. I was offered this book to review and picked it up because I wanted to learn more about the early Church Fathers not because of my interest in John Michael Talbot. But this turned out to be more of a memoir-ish look at the early Church fathers than a direct exploration. Talbot tells us about his conversion to Christianity through the Jesus People movement. Then in the mid 70s he start meeting with a spiritual director and exploring the church fathers, which led him to convert to Catholicism and eventually start a lay monastic community that invited single, married and celibate Christians (both Catholic and not) to live and serve together. More recently Talbot has started touring and teaching again because there was a fire at the monastic community and he needed to make some money to help rebuild. That lead to him teaching about the early church fathers and worship and his faith which is where this book comes in.
This is a helpful book for a couple reasons. 1) Talbot's story gives a good context for how to think about the usefulness of church fathers in a modern world. 2) It is a good introduction to actual teaching of the church fathers and how some of our assumptions about the early church are either confirmed or shown to be wrong. 3) this is good for evangelicals that are unfamiliar with Catholic writers. Talbot has always been accepted by Evagnelicals because of his music and he knows and understands how to talk about his faith (as a Catholic) in a way that is very inclusive but not hiding his Catholicism. I am looking forward to reading some of Talbot's other books.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/ancient-path-old-lessons-church-fathers-new-life-today-john-michael-talbot-mike-aquilina/
