[...] As far as the structure of Volume II is concerned, in the classification of the material, we follow Volume I. There - in the Introduction - we propose, contrary to what patrologists generally apply then and now, the absolute chronological classification of the material. By presenting the figures and texts of the Church chronologically, the reader gains the overall picture of the Church's life, which is unified. When Athanasius of Alexandria writes against Arius, in Nisibis and Edessa the Syrian Ephraim composes his edifying poems, while in Rome the Latin Marius Victorinus attempts elementary trinitology.

The Church at that time is united, facing common problems. And we study the Fathers to understand the course of the Church. However, this course is determined by the respective dogmatic-theological-ecclesiastical crises, which more or less concern the entire Church. The great Fathers, the core of Patrology, performed their most significant work prompted by these crises, which appear successively. Moreover, the classification of the material by literary genres and by places (geographical areas) presupposes the dominance of philological-historical interests, while Patrology has a theological character, although it meticulously uses philological-historical methods. What primarily interests us is the mindset and spirit that, through the literary genres, were expressed in each place by the few Great Fathers and Teachers, the many ecclesiastical writers, the heretics, the collective and synodal texts, the heretics, and the marginal Christians. [...]

(from the author's preface)