The Library
1277 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
1601–1700
149 works
1603
Chinese
Tianzhu Shiyi
Matteo Ricci · 1552–1610
A dialogue between a Western scholar and a Chinese one, arguing for God from classical Confucian texts and against Buddhist and Neo-Confucian positions.
1606
Latin
Johann Gerhard · 1582–1637
Fifty-one short meditations on sin, grace, the sacraments, and death, written by a twenty-four-year-old who had nearly died of illness twice.
1605–1610
German
Vier Bücher vom wahren Christentum
Johann Arndt · 1555–1621
An argument that doctrine without a changed life is worthless, drawing openly on medieval mystics to teach repentance, the indwelling Christ, and daily renewal.
1588–1607
Latin
Annales Ecclesiastici
Cesare Baronio · 1538–1607
Church history year by year from the incarnation to 1198, compiled from the Vatican archives as a Catholic answer to the Magdeburg Centuries.
1608
Dutch
Jacobus Arminius · 1560–1609
A defence before the States of Holland of his views on predestination, arguing that election is conditional on foreseen faith and that God's grace may be resisted.
1609
French
Francis de Sales · 1567–1622
Written for a married noblewoman: devotion suited to the soldier, the tradesman, the married woman, and the widow, since a life of prayer belongs in the world.
written c. 1592–1608; published 1609
French
Benet of Canfield · 1562–1610
The will of God in three degrees — exterior, interior, and essential — taught by an English Capuchin who directed much of the French spiritual revival.
1610
Dutch
The followers of Arminius
Five articles submitted to the Dutch government: conditional election, universal atonement, total depravity, resistible grace, and uncertainty about final perseverance.
1611
English
The forty-seven translators
A revision by six companies of scholars working to fifteen rules, told to follow the Bishops' Bible where they could and to avoid marginal notes on doctrine.
1612
German
Jakob Böhme · 1575–1624
A shoemaker's account of a vision of the ground of all being, in which God contains a dark principle as well as a light one, and creation arises from their conflict.
1612
English
Thomas Helwys · c. 1575–c. 1616
An argument that the king has no authority over conscience, and that heretics, Turks, Jews, and whomsoever ought not to be punished for their religion.
1613
Latin
Roberto de Nobili · 1577–1656
A defence of allowing Indian converts to keep the sacred thread, the tuft of hair, and caste observance, arguing these are social rather than religious signs.
written to 1610; published 1615
Italian
Matteo Ricci · 1552–1610
An account of thirty years in China — learning the language, becoming a scholar in Chinese terms, the mathematics that opened doors, and the slow gathering of converts.
c. 1615
Spanish
Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno
Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala · c. 1535–c. 1616
Twelve hundred pages and four hundred drawings by an Andean nobleman, addressed to the king of Spain, documenting Inca history and the abuses of colonial rule.
1616
French
Francis de Sales · 1567–1622
A full theology of charity from its natural roots to the highest union, written for people already committed and full of images drawn from beekeeping and gardening.
c. 1607–1633
Chinese
Xu Guangqi · 1562–1633
A senior Ming official's defence of Christianity as supplementing Confucianism and correcting Buddhism, alongside his translations of Euclid and works on agriculture.
1618–1619
Latin
The Synod of Dort
An international Reformed synod answers the Remonstrance under five heads — unconditional election, definite atonement, total depravity, irresistible grace, and perseverance.
1619
Latin
Johann Valentin Andreae · 1586–1654
An ideal Christian city on an island where labour is shared, education is free and scientific, and no one is rich or idle.
c. 1604–1641
French
Jane Frances de Chantal · 1572–1641
Spiritual direction from the co-founder of the Visitation order, on dryness in prayer, on grief, and on running a religious congregation for women without enclosure.
1623
French
Pierre de Bérulle · 1575–1629
A christocentric spirituality of adoration and self-abasement before the incarnate Word, with the human person defined by its capacity to be possessed by God.
1624
Latin
De Veritate
Edward Herbert of Cherbury · 1583–1648
Five common notions said to be innate in all people — that God exists, should be worshipped, by virtue, with repentance, and that there is reward and punishment.
1622–1624
German
Jakob Böhme · 1575–1624
The only book of his published in his lifetime: treatises on repentance, resignation, and the new birth, considerably plainer than his speculative works.
1624
English
John Donne · 1572–1631
Twenty-three meditations written during a near-fatal fever, tracking the illness stage by stage — including the bell tolling for a neighbour and no man being an island.
1610–1625
Latin
Loci Theologici
Johann Gerhard · 1582–1637
Nine folio volumes covering the whole of doctrine with exhaustive citation of scripture, the fathers, and opponents, in the full scholastic apparatus.
1625
Latin
De Iure Belli ac Pacis
Hugo Grotius · 1583–1645
A law of nations grounded in a natural law that would hold, he says, even if we granted that there is no God — with rules on just cause, prisoners, and non-combatants.
1627
Latin
Hugo Grotius · 1583–1645
An apologetic written originally in Dutch verse for sailors, arguing the historical credibility of the gospels for readers who would meet Muslims and Jews on their voyages.
1627
Latin
Medulla Theologiae
William Ames · 1576–1633
Theology defined as the doctrine of living to God, organised in tight numbered propositions covering faith and then observance.
1627
Spanish
De Instauranda Aethiopum Salute
Alonso de Sandoval · 1576–1652
A study of African peoples, languages, and the conditions of the slave ships arriving at Cartagena, written by a priest who met each vessel.
c. 1628–1638
Spanish
Juan Falconi · 1596–1638
Letters and treatises urging a simple prayer of faith, resting on God's will without effort or reflection, addressed largely to laypeople.
preached c. 1600–1624; published 1629
English
Lancelot Andrewes · 1555–1626
Court sermons of intricate wordplay and close attention to the Greek and Hebrew, including the nativity sermon on the cold coming the wise men had of it.
1629
Latin
Cyril Lucaris · 1572–1638
A confession by a patriarch of Constantinople teaching predestination, justification by faith, and scripture's authority over the church — in Calvinist terms.
1630
English
Richard Sibbes · 1577–1635
An exposition of the prophecy that he will not break a bruised reed, written for the discouraged and insisting that grace is small before it is strong.
written 1623; published 1631
Czech
Jan Amos Comenius · 1592–1670
A pilgrim tours the city of the world with two guides who make everything look better than it is, finds every trade absurd, and returns inward to find Christ.
written c. 1609–1620; published 1633
English
John Donne · 1572–1631
Sonnets and hymns of argumentative, physical, and often desperate address to God — asking to be battered, and admitting he cannot repent without help.
1633
English
George Herbert · 1593–1633
A hundred and sixty short poems arranged as a walk through a church, recording a long argument with God that ends with the guest sitting down and eating.
c. 1636
German
Nun danket alle Gott
Martin Rinkart · 1586–1649
A hymn of thanksgiving written by the only surviving pastor in a walled town during the Thirty Years' War, where he buried some four thousand people.
c. 1630–1653
French
Juliana Morell · 1594–1653
Devotional writings and a translation with commentary of a monastic rule, by a prodigy who publicly defended theses in philosophy at twelve.
1637–1638
English
The New England ministers and Anne Hutchinson's examiners
The trial transcripts of a Boston woman who held meetings to discuss sermons, claimed direct revelation, and was banished from Massachusetts while pregnant.
c. 1614–1650
Japanese
The hidden Christians of Japan and their persecutors
Edicts of expulsion, apostasy registers, and the fumi-e images that suspects were required to tread on, alongside the prayers hidden communities memorised for seven generations.
1640
Latin
Cornelius Jansen · 1585–1638
A three-volume reconstruction of Augustine's teaching on grace, arguing that fallen humanity cannot resist either concupiscence or grace without divine determination.
1–40 of 149 matching · 1277 in the Library