I did find reading the Church Fathers fascinating, and do intend to write something up about it.
As I mentioned there was in fact a universal consensus that the earth is at the center of the Universe. Nevertheless, there was some debate about how it's possible for the earth (solid matter) to be held in suspension in the MIDDLE of some water. They clearly had a notion that there was an objective bottom, and that heavier material settled to the bottom. So some argued that it was center of the universe in the sense of being bottom center (so St. Augustine said it's possible that it be both bottom and center (so horizontally center but vertically bottom) but also did not rule out that somehow it could remain in suspension in a middle place, despite this seeming to contradict the laws of density where it should sink to the bottom. I saw a few arguments about how it would be possible for it to remain in suspension in the middle.
Then they all believed in a firmament, and between the land/earth itself there was the air gap of our atmosphere and the dry land, etc. There was a debate about the shape of said firmament and some discussion about what it was made out of. Some argued that this FIRMAMENT was shaped like a sphere (for those who believed it was in suspension in the center) and others that it was a hemisphere (those who believed it was at the bottom). Still others argued, based on Scripture, where it was said that it was stretched out by God like a tent, that it could not be curved (spherical or hemispherical). St. Augustine countered that by saying even a skin (like a tent canvas) CAN be curved, and he used the example of what's translated as a "football" (though I'm sure they didn't have footballs back them).
So, when some of the Fathers say that the shape of the world is spherical, they are NOT talking about a globe on the surface of which we live. They're talking about the entire world, including the atmosphere and the firmament, being shaped like a globe, or a hemisphere, etc. There was some mention by Fathers of those who claim that the world was shaped like a "cone" and I haven't worked that one out in my mind yet. Not sure if the pointy side of cone is up (and the firmament goes up to a point) or if the pointy side is on the bottom, and it's more like a snow cone.
So one father spoke of the earth being ROUND and BOUDNDED by a sphere. That has no meaning on a straight sphere. But it makes perfect sense if you're talking about a circular surface that's created by a cross-section of a sphere (the outer sphere that bounds it), not sure whether it's IN or THROUGH the firmament or not. Another spoke of an oblique circle in a sphere, the exact same concept, where the land surface is circular based on it being a cross-section of a sphere.
So with these options, some of the Fathers (those who believed that the world is a sphere held in suspension in both the horizontal and vertical center of the universe) believed that night was created by the sun travelling below the lower hemisphere (underneath the earthen part of it), [so they didn't believe in the notion that the sun circle around the earth parallel to it as the most prevalent FE model), whereas some others believed it was hidden by distant mountains, and others still (like in the Book of Enoch) that it came out of and then re-entered various "gates" around the firmament.
So the precise course of the sun was debated, and whether the world was in the middle or on the bottom, and therefore whether it was a sphere or a hemisphere, and there was SOME (although a bit less) belief that the firmament was not in fact spherical or hemispherical, but more looking like a tent (perhaps these are the ones who believed it was cone-shaped, with the point at the top, as you might see on a tent?) But they all agreed that there was a firmament, an air gap in between, and their reference to spheres are CLEARLY a reference to the shape of the FIRMAMENT and not of the terra firma on which people lived.
THIS is what makes all the quotations from the Fathers make sense. But, alas, it eluded Dr. Sungenis, as he was dead set on turning any reference to a sphere into a reference to a globe earth on which people lived. No Father believed that. And I intend to prove it conclusively from the Patristic sources.