I'vve had some requests to give more info on what to read/where to go to start learning about the early church fathers.  Below I have appended a basic resource guide.  Hope it helps.

Some books to start with:

Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo

Henry Chadwick, The Early Church

Ivor Davidson, The Birth of the Church and A Public Faith

J N D Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines

Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity

Paul McKechnie, The First Christian Centuries: Perspectives on the Early Church

R A Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity

Two journals of particular interest are:

Journal of Theological Studies

Journal of Early Christian Studies

Useful Webpages

http://moses.creighton.edu/NAPS/napslinks/main.htm The resources page of the North American Patristics Society.

http://www.monachos.net/patristics/index.shtml An Orthodox links and resources page.

http://www.ccel.org/. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Good collection of patristic translations.

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/jod/augustine/. James O’Donnell’s Augustine webpage. Anyone aho can connect Augustine, Pelagius and The Grateful Dead got my vote.