Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun father_of_the_church

1 sense of father of the church

Sense 1
Church Father, Father of the Church, Father -- ((Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official church doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were later declared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the best known Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom)
       => theologian, theologist, theologizer, theologiser -- (someone who is learned in theology or who speculates about theology)