Made Perfect in Faith

Recommended Book:

Made Perfect in Faith
Sermons on the Lives and Works of Fifty Holy Church Fathers

by Father James Thornton

In this homiliary, Father James Thornton introduces fifty of the greatest Fathers of the Orthodox Church. Eschewing the dry language of history and the recondite language of theology alike, Father James opts to present his subjects in the pious language of hagiography. He thus renders the Church Fathers immediately accessible to all, challenging us to ask ourselves about them, in our own spiritual lives: “Seest thou how faith wrought with...[their]...works, and by works was faith made perfect?”

ISBN 0–911165–60–6
340 pp.
$17.95

To 0rder: http://www.ctosonline.org/lives/MP.html

Table 0f Contents:
Preface and Acknowedgementsl
Sermon 1 The Holy Church Fathers
Sermon 2 Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome
Sermon 3 Saint Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna
Sermon 4 Saint Ireanæus, Bishop of Lyons
Sermon 5 Saint Ignatios the God-Bearer, Bishop of Antioch
Sermon 6 Saint Justin the Philosopher
Sermon 7 Saint Hippolytos, Bishop of Rome
Sermon 8 Saint Cyprian of Carthage
Sermon 9 Saint Anthony the Great
Sermon 10 Saint Athanasios the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria
Sermon 11 Saint Methodios, Bishop of Patara
Sermon 12 Saint Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers
Sermon 13 Saint Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours
Sermon 14 Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem
Sermon 15 Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
Sermon 16 Saint Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople
Sermon 17 Saint Basil the Great, Bishop of Cæsarea
Sermon 18 Saint Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa
Sermon 19 Saint John Chrysostomos, Archbishop of Constantinople
Sermon 20 Saint John Cassian the Roman
Sermon 21 Saint Ephrem the Syrian
Sermon 22 Saint Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria
Sermon 23 Saint Patrick, Bishop of Armagh
Sermon 24 Saint Vincent of Lerins
Sermon 25 Saint Romanos the Melodist
Sermon 26 Saint Benedict of Nursia
Sermon 27 Saint Gregory the Dialogist, Pope of Rome
Sermon 28 Saint John of the Ladder
Sermon 29 Saint Maximos the Confessor
Sermon 30 Saint Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Nineveh
Sermon 31 Saint Bede the Venerable
Sermon 32 Saint John of Damascus
Sermon 33 Saint Theodore the Studite
Sermon 34 Saint Photios the Great, Patriarch of Constantinople
Sermon 35 Saint Symeon the New Theologian
Sermon 36 Saint Sava I, Archbishop of Serbia
Sermon 37 Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica
Sermon 38 Saint Mark Evgenikos, Metropolitan of Ephesus
Sermon 39 Saint Kosmas of Aitolia
Sermon 40 Saint Makarios, Archbishop of Corinth
Sermon 41 Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite
Sermon 42 Saint Seraphim of Sarov
Sermon 43 Saint Theophan the Recluse, Bishop of Vladimir
Sermon 44 Saint John of Kronstadt
Sermon 45 Saint Nectarios of Ægina, Metropolitan of Pentapolis
Sermon 46 Saint Tikhon Patriarch of Moscow
Sermon 47 Blessed Philotheos of Longovarda
Sermon 48 Saint John the Wonderworker, Archbishop of San Francisco
Sermon 49 Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Zica
Sermon 50 Saint Justin of Celije
Sermon 51 Blessed Philaret, Metropolitan of New York
Bibliography
Index of Names

Excerpts from Preface & Acknowledgements and Chapter 1:
The series of sermons of which this book is comprised was delivered ... beginning on Meatfare Sunday 2004 and ending on the Sunday of the Prodigal Son in 2005 ... [that is, a sermon for a year of Sundays excluding Pascha Sunday -jh]

... Saints of many different ethnic and national backgrounds , encompassing representatives both of the Eastern and of the Western regions of the Church, were deliberately selected to demonstrate the œcumenicity and catholicity of the 0rthodox Church...

In the 0rthodox Church, we often speak of "the Holy Church Fathers." We quote their words in sermons, commentaries, essays, and books. We regard them as preeminent interpreters of Holy Scripture. We study their lives. We celebrate their memories on their Feast Days throughout the year, We pray for their intercession before God. Their teachings and example, set upon the foundation of the Holy Gospels, form the structure of the 0rthodox way of life and the 0rthodox world view.

In the realm of theology, the Holy Fathers rank first. Modern 0rthodox theologians struggle to acquire "the mind ol the Fathers," that is, to acquire their ways of thinking, ways of thinking that describe not only intellectual processes, but, much more significantly, patterns of thought that flow directly out of lives lived in sanctity. Since the teachings of the 0rthodox Church and the 0rthodox way of life are found in the lives and works of the Church Fathers...

... a Church Father ... is of one mind with all Holy Fathers of his own age and of past ages ...


[The chapters 2 - 51 are arranged to start with the earliest first generation of successors to the first Apostles and end with the most recent Holy Fathers of our own lifetime -jh]