Q&A: There was no uniformity in the early church on any topic — "church fathers" is a misleading term

Winger affirms: there was division in the first century itself, and the term "church fathers" is somewhat misleading since many of them were centuries removed from the apostolic church. Applying the label "father" to figures from the 4th or 5th century is like calling Bill Clinton a founding father of America. Selective quotation of agreeable figures misrepresents the actual diversity of early Christian thought.