The Fathers Refounded, Elizabeth Clark's magnificent sequel to Founding the Fathers, describes in abundant detail how the overlapping disciplines of early church history and patristics became established in several American universities. It examines the work of three historians of early Christianity and their accomplishments and difficulties—and along the way it reminds its readers more than once that historical investigation poses a danger to the security of religious dogmatists. Take, for instance, the work of George LaPiana: As an Italian exile and historical scholar whose investigations of early Christian associations in Rome undermined the accustomed Roman Catholic story of apostolic succession and episcopal authority, his work could be ignored during his lifetime by the triumphalist representatives of seemingly unquestioned dogma. An example is the work of LaPiana's American contemporary, Monsignor Joseph (“Butch”) Fenton, writing only a few years before the Second Vatican Council would vindicate the historical approach when it endorsed patristic theology as an inspiration for aggiornamento, the “updating” of Catholic thought.

中文翻译：

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回到未来：父亲的重建与早期基督教的复兴

父亲重新建立，伊丽莎白克拉克的宏伟续集创立父亲，详细描述了早期教会历史和教父学的重叠学科如何在几所美国大学建立起来。它考察了三位早期基督教历史学家的工作以及他们的成就和困难——在此过程中，它不止一次地提醒读者，历史调查对宗教教条主义者的安全构成威胁。以乔治·拉皮亚纳（George LaPiana）的作品为例：作为一名意大利流亡者和历史学者，他对罗马早期基督教协会的调查破坏了罗马天主教关于使徒继承和主教权威的惯常故事，他的作品在他的一生中可能会被胜利主义者忽视看似毫无疑问的教条的代表。一个例子是拉皮亚纳的美国当代作品，附庸风雅，天主教思想的“更新”。