Patristic Research

Category-by-category study of which tradition (Catholic, Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican, Presbyterian, Reformed Baptist, General Baptist, Anabaptist; classic confessional formulations only, see notes/confessions.md) has held closest to the early church fathers and Scripture.

Method

Primary sources only: patristic writings (through John of Damascus, c. 750) and Holy Scripture. A tradition’s own claims to be original carry no weight.
Every claim is tested against Scripture exegetically: original Greek/Hebrew, culture, and context. English quotes use the LSB.
Fathers are read in English translation (Schaff ANF/NPNF etc.), with Greek and Latin checked on key passages.
Later development is weighed: legitimate clarification versus departure. For each camp, record when its “clarity” on a question came into view.
Splits and unclear verdicts are allowed.

Layout

notes/ working summaries per father/source (the paper trail)
doctrines/ the research, organised by tier (first-, second-, third-order) and doctrine; each doctrine has a page with its verdicts and a reasoning.md with the numbered steps (structure)
notes/shared/ notes shared by the doctrines that came from one former category, including post-750 development
docs/ conventions for front matter, links, anchors, citations

Doctrines by tier

Full map with the doctrines not yet researched: doctrines. How the tiers were set: triage.

First-order (5 of 16 researched)

Second-order (16 of 20 researched)

Third-order (4 of 18 researched)