Quote:
Originally Posted by InChristAlone
Do you know what kind of Church fathers did WL read? Latin? Eastern? What books did he read? In English or Chinese? I might be wrong, but I believe it was close to impossible for him to get a book on the Church fathers' faith that time.
BTW, since you were aware of the similarities, what Church fathers did you read? Did you find them useful? Can you recommend me any books?
|
Witness Lee cited several of the apostolic fathers usually with respect to how they confirmed his theology. It must be said that Lee denied that he had a theology. In fact he denied that he even had an interpretation of the Bible. He would frequently remind us that he always preached nothing but the pure word of God. Further, he did not receive his theology from the church fathers or anybody else on God's green earth. No. It was directly from the Spirit and the Word of God. But, from time to time, when he was in a serious reflective mood, he would tell us about how his teaching was in harmony with the ancient theologians. For example, Ignatius used the term "economy of God." Of course, so did Paul.
I left the LRC 28 years ago, so it's a bit difficult for me to name every book I read of the apostolic fathers. Mostly I read secondary sources. In general, the fathers were interpreting Jesus in terms of Greek philosophy and Neoplatonism. Thus, theology was born. Writing the New Testament in Greek itself had a Hellenizing effect on Christianity. This is clearly illustrated by the representation of Christ as the Logos in John 1:1. Christianity became a synthesis of Jewish and pagan ideas. Nee and Lee were theologically minded individuals very much on the Greek side. This is evident in books like "The All-Inclusive Christ" in which can be seen the influence of Plato's "Realm of Ideas." To Plato every actual thing is a shadow of the ultimate thing which exists in the realm of ideas. For Nee and Lee, every positive existing thing is a shadow of Christ.