"Patristic theology is primarily pastoral. Yet often the study of writings from the first six centuries of the church is pursued in ways that make the polemical, philosophical, and political aspects stand out. But if one reads around those texts that are profiled in these ways, the pastoral concerns will emerge. Even contemporary interests in social, economic, and deconstructionist approaches locate much of the data for their questions within or near texts that also can be looked at for the descriptions of shepherding the flock. Thus it is likely that any who read ancient Christian literature...