How important is it to study the Church founders and do you think one can be a proper Catholic (by extension, a proper Christian) if they do not nor have desire to study Church founders and the development of doctrines from a Roman Catholic standpoint?
Lemme know!
Technically a Christian is someone who believes in and follows Christ, just as an American citizen is technically someone who is "born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside…" (I'm not an American citizen by the way).
However one would think that if an American citizen took their country seriously, they would study their constitution, the founding fathers, the history of the country, why Americans think and act the way they do, so that they would understand their heritage, for better or worse, till death do them part (to paraphrase another vow).
In a similar fashion one would think that while someone may be a Christian, and never give their historical heritage another thought, one would think they would spend some time on the Church fathers, Church history, the sacraments and their justification, the roles of Scripture and Tradition, Church authority and so on.
Not doing so would not mean that person was not a Christian, and quite possibly they may not have the ability to search out these things - either because they lack the intellectual capacity, or education, or the resources are withheld from them (by persecution for example).
But I think a person who just ignores church history will be an uninformed, and probably ignorant Christian.