This book review brings six patristic works recently published in English and German to the notice of the Chinese reading public. The books reviewed here are: - Berthold Altaner and Alfred Stuiber's Patrologie (Freiburg et al.: Herder, 1993), Heinrich Kraft's Einführung in die Patrologie (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1991), Matthias Günther's Einleitung in die Apostolischen Väter (Frankfurt/M. et al.: Peter Lang, 1997), The Reception of the Church Fathers in the West-From the Carolingians to the Maurists in 2 volumes edited by Irena Backus (Leiden et al.: E.J. Brill, 1997), Miroslav Marcovich's Patristic Textual Criticism, Part 1 (ICSS 6, Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press, 1994) and, Hubertus R. Drobner's Lehrbuch der Patrologie (Freiburg/Br. et al.: Herder, 1994). With both commendation and criticism, the reviewer expresses his long-cherished hope that the introduction of these works will enable the Chinese-speaking theologians to see more clearly the necessity of laying a solid foundation in this discipline for the Chinese-speaking world in the years to come.