We are roughly one half through the list of the 33 Doctors of the Church. My limited knowledge of the individual Doctors does prevent me from doing much other than summarizing what someone else has already written about them. I can't think of anything more gruesome for this blog than to be a piece derivative drivel. I'm not giving up on the Doctors, by no means. Yet, they must be done differently.
The reason for taking up the Doctors was to explore their meaning. What I found was that each one is part and parcel of his (and eventually her) secular life. Even the monastics among them had to deal with dicey political situations. Some of it was fascinating, and it made me wonder about the stands they took, they things they wrote, and sometimes the backlash from those stands and writings. But that's not it either, because that's reading into a life lived 1700 years ago. Biography with the author reading his/her own meanings into it. That is not the way to find the meaning of the Doctors.
Then it seemed the wisest course to study their writings in more detail. Good heavens. If anyone tries it they'll be at it for the rest of their lives.
This blog is not a vast community of readers and their comments, so really, I have no audience to please or explain myself to. Yet, I explain this anyway.
Perhaps I need a course in Patristics? Hmmmm.
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