church fathers

I have been fascinated to note that there are a number of contributors to OST who argue for some special significance being assigned to the views/writings of the Church Fathers especially when we look to try to understand the bible. The matter crops up in various discussions here and there, but I just thought that I would ask the question regarding formative-emerging theology:

Hi Andrew et al,

I’ve been trying to keep up with the various threads and debates re: your ‘post-eschatological’ perspective and to relate your ideas to what I’ve already understood care of Tom Wright.  When I’ve got through the large pile of books which I still have to read (inc. N T Wrights, ‘Resurrection of the Son of God’, then I’ll attempt your COSM!

This is a fairly recent ‘journey’ for me and I’m still struggling to keep up with the data, but I am very convinced by the whole ‘2nd temple Jewish context’ which has come out of a lot of the NPP work (inc. Dunn, Sanders etc..) and how Jesus’ Jewish context allows us to hear ‘afresh’ the nationalistic/political/historical dimension of Israel within the wider Roman Empire which is evidenced within the Jesus tradition/NT texts.