patristic

American

[puh-tris-tik] / pəˈtrɪs tɪk /

Sometimes patristical

adjective

of or relating to the fathers of the Christian church or their writings.

patristic British

/ pəˈtrɪstɪk /

adjective

of or relating to the Fathers of the Church, their writings, or the study of these

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Etymology

Origin of patristic

First recorded in 1830–40; patr(i)- + -istic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In these ecumenical times, argued Father Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., professor of patristic theology at the Jesuit Seminary in Woodstock, Md., theologians are obliged to look harder at the issues that divide Christians.

From Time Magazine Archive

And, you know, none of the early, really patristic Christians anticipated that.

From Time Magazine Archive

Cubism, from this simplified and patristic standpoint, becomes the tree in the primal garden of modernism, and Picasso and Braque its Adam and Eve.

From Time Magazine Archive

The author, the Rev. George J. Dyer, is a professor of patristic theology at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary near Chicago.

From Time Magazine Archive

They would rely on their rosary every night, while in another room I read patristic theology.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023