ABSTRACT
The drive to define correct doctrine also created the concept of Patristic teachings, as being a body of ideas which ecclesial consensus found orthodox and which could be relied on to shape entire communities in the face of deviant alternatives. In moving into the public arena of ecumenical debate, much Patristic thought was formed substantially by reacting against existing ideas, rather than formulating new ones. Patristic writers they used many of the same rhetorical methods as their philosophical forebears, and much of the vocabulary of the Bible. Although many of the doctrinal disputes about the person of Christ concerned his relationship to God the Father, or the ways in which humanity and divinity are simultaneously present in him, these matters can only be fully understood if his integrity of his humanity is understood. This is how Patristic authority was established, collating authentic insights which the tradition developed into 'orthodox' teachings and rejecting as erroneous aberrant, incomplete or theologically unsound variants.
