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Pope
[Organization & Polity]The pope is the Bishop of Rome, the supreme leader of the Catholic Church (the Roman Catholic Church). The Catholic Church regards the pope as the successor of the apostle Peter, but Protestant and Orthodox churches do not recognize his primacy.
Anselm of Canterbury
[People]Anselm (c. 1033–1109) was a theologian of the medieval Western Church and Archbishop of Canterbury. He is known for his method of "faith seeking understanding," the ontological argument, and the satisfaction theory of the atonement, and he is called the "Father of Scholasticism."
William Perkins
[People]William Perkins (1558–1602) was an English Puritan theologian and preacher of the Elizabethan era. He taught and preached at Cambridge and is often called "the father of Puritanism."
Bede
[People]Bede (672/673–735) was a monk, priest, and scholar of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria in England. He wrote the *Ecclesiastical History of the English People*, which records how the Anglo-Saxons came to accept Christianity, and for this work he is called the "Father of English History."
Philipp Jakob Spener
[People]Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705) was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian. His *Pia Desideria* (1675) launched the German Pietist movement, and for this reason he is called the "Father of Pietism."
Choi Heung-jong
[People]Choi Heung-jong (崔興宗, 1880–1966) was a Presbyterian minister and independence activist from Gwangju, Korea. He devoted his life to caring for people with Hansen's disease (leprosy), beggars, and tuberculosis patients, and he became known as "the father of beggars and lepers." His pen name was Obang (五放).
Carmi (son of Zabdi)
[People]Carmi is an Old Testament figure from the clan of Zerah in the tribe of Judah. He was the son of Zabdi and the father of Achan, who secretly took some of the devoted things at Jericho. His name appears in Joshua 7 and 1 Chronicles 2:7.
Joachim
[People]Joachim is the figure whom church tradition, including the second-century apocryphal Protoevangelium of James, identifies as the father of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the husband of Anne. He is not named in the canonical Scriptures.
Tradition of the Elders
[Bible]The "tradition of the elders" is a New Testament expression for the regulations, handed down from generation to generation outside the Law of Moses, that the Pharisees and scribes observed. It appears in the dispute over handwashing in Matthew 15 and Mark 7.
Irenaeus
[People]Irenaeus was a Church Father who served as bishop of Lyon in Gaul in the late second century. In *Against Heresies* he refuted Gnosticism and emphasized the four Gospels and the rule of faith, profoundly influencing the formation of orthodox theology in the early church.
Proverbs 2
[Bible]Proverbs 2 is a father's instruction teaching that whoever seeks wisdom as silver and hidden treasure will come to understand the fear of the LORD and will be protected from the way of evil men and from the strange woman.
Proverbs 7
[Bible]Proverbs 7 is a father's instruction warning his son against the enticements of the adulteress. It depicts a young man, seen from a window, who yields to temptation and goes to his ruin.
Ephesians 6:4
[Bible Verses]Ephesians 6:4 exhorts fathers not to provoke their children to wrath but to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It is frequently cited in discussions of parental authority and responsibility and of approaches to discipline.
John Chrysostom
[People]John Chrysostom (c. 347–407) was a Church Father from Antioch who served as Archbishop of Constantinople. His outstanding preaching earned him the epithet "Golden Mouth."
Proverbs 3
[Bible]Proverbs 3 is a chapter of fatherly instruction addressed to a son. It urges trust in the LORD and a firm hold on wisdom, describes the blessings of gaining wisdom, and teaches right conduct toward one's neighbor.
Mark 13:32–33
[Bible Verses]In this passage Jesus says that only the Father knows "that day and that hour" of his return, and he urges his hearers to keep watch. It is often cited against date-setting eschatology, and the phrase "neither the Son" has long been a point of contention in Christological debate.
Recapitulation
[Doctrine & Theology]Recapitulation (anakephalaiōsis) is the soteriology developed by the second-century Church Father Irenaeus. It teaches that Christ retraced from the beginning the human path on which Adam failed, restored it through obedience, and gathers all things together in himself.
Abiel
[People]Abiel is a Benjamite whom 1 Samuel identifies as the father of Kish and thus the grandfather of Saul, Israel's first king. He appears only by name in genealogies, and nothing of his life is recorded.
Genesis 47
[Bible]Genesis 47 is the chapter in which Joseph presents his father and brothers to Pharaoh and settles them in the land of Goshen. During the famine he acquires, in turn, the Egyptians' money, livestock, and land for Pharaoh, and the aged Jacob makes Joseph swear to bury him in Canaan.
Numbers 27
[Bible]Numbers 27 recounts how the daughters of Zelophehad ask for their father's inheritance, which gives rise to a law of inheritance for daughters. It also tells how, after Moses is told of his coming death, Joshua is commissioned as his successor by the laying on of hands.