I’ve been reading the church fathers of the second and third centuries for about a year now, and while there is usually an exception to every one of the following claims, what follows is a list of the beliefs that the fathers appear to have by and large held:

• Remarriage after divorce was seen as adultery
• They had a very negative view of wealth and believed that living frugally was a requirement for Christians
• They tended to have a spirit vs flesh dichotomy, seeing the flesh as something that needed to be heavily restrained
• The Christian life was about choosing spiritual ways over material ones. A Christian must transcend this world by refusing retaliation and riches, denying fleshly desires, and welcoming death. They saw themselves as people who did not belong to this world
• Patriarchalism was presupposed by all
• Pacifism was by far the standard, and a Christian was expected to be meek, mild-tempered, and ever forgiving
• They strongly emphasized communal living and the sharing of resources, particularly to provide for the poor among them
• They believed in being separate from the world, shunning the theatre, military service, pagan worship, etc. but were mostly happy to converse with and be influenced by pagan philosophy
• Most of those who spoke on eschatology, believed that 6000 years from creation there would be a millennial reign of Christ, followed by the new heavens and earth, and some of them believed that before the millennium a third temple in Jerusalem would be built
• None of them believed in what is now called postmillennialism
• They believed the Scriptures were the only infallible source of doctrine but thought they could only be interpreted in keeping with the traditions passed down by those who knew the Apostles
• There was no consistent canon of Scripture but it was taken for granted that the Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters were canonical and no church authority was needed to validate them
• Apocryphal books like Barnabas and Hermas were sometimes seen as Scripture
• Without exception, they interpreted the Old Testament in ways that would make almost any conservative Christian uncomfortable. They either interpreted it in wildly allegorical ways, or were outright dismissive and negative towards it. They utterly rejected any notion that the ceremonial laws (including the Sabbath) remained in place, and thought the instances of OT violence, if taken literally, were at odds with Christ’s teaching
• They did not have a consistent ecclesiology or view of church polity
• There was absolutely nothing like the Papal church polity of Roman Catholicism. Some did see the Bishop of Rome as having preeminent status, but not for the reasons that Catholics do
• They did believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all Divine, and that the Son was a man, but they did not have a consistent way of understanding these things and often contradicted later dogma
• Salvation was seen as hinging on faith in and faithfulness to Christ. Belief in him was fundamental, but living in accordance with his ethical teachings, being unstained from the world, and participating in the sacramental life of the church, were essential
• Salvation history was the story of God rescuing the cosmos from its captivity to sin, death, and demonic forces, and was virtually never seen in legal terms. It was about the Creator renewing his corrupted world, rather than the Judge acquitting sinners
• They had a high view of the sacraments, believing them to be more than just symbols, but as bestowing salvific power
• There was no consistent view of hell or postmortem judgment
• They did not venerate images or pray to the dead, but they did often pray for the dead and preserve and worship in the presence of relics of martyrs
• They across the board believed in free will, and sometimes denied determinism, but their teachings on these matters were often contradictory
• As exegetes, theologians, wordsmiths, and philosophers, they range from mediocre to terrible, except for Clement of Alexandria and Origen, who were highly influenced by pagan philosophy and esotericism, with Origen being the only figure before the 4th century who can be called a genius in any sense, even though much of his thought cannot be accepted
• Their teachings are frequently bizarre, mystical, esoteric, and distinctly “eastern”
• They did use words like ‘priest’ and ‘sacrifice’ to describe themselves and their worship, but this was done mainly out of irony, as their understanding of Priesthood and sacrifice were radically different from the Pagans and Jews around them