There's no one Holy Father you can read to get the whole teaching of Christianity, because many Holy Fathers express different points of view, different aspects. And the whole of the Fathers contain the wisdom of the tradition. And modern historians would like to say that one contradicts the other and so forth, but if, once you enter into the Orthodox spirit you see that one rather compensates for the other. And there's a marvelous harmony in all the writings of the Holy Fathers.

Fr. Seraphim Rose

from the Survival Course