c. 393–431
Latin
The Letters and Poems
Paulinus of Nola · c. 354–431
The correspondence and annual birthday poems of a wealthy senator who gave away an enormous fortune to live beside the tomb of a minor saint.
Western · Letters
301–400
The Fourth Century
87 works
c. 380–430
Syriac
The Book of Steps
Liber Graduum
Anonymous
Thirty discourses distinguishing the upright, who keep the commandments while married and working, from the perfect, who renounce everything — and insisting both are genuinely Christian.
Syriac · Homilies
c. 400
Latin
Against Faustus the Manichaean
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
Thirty-three books answering the Manichaean bishop whose arguments had once impressed him, defending the Old Testament and the goodness of the created order.
Western · Polemic
c. 300–400
Greek
The Apostolic Church Order
Anonymous
A short Egyptian order in which the apostles are made to speak in turn about bishops, presbyters, readers, and widows, with a debate over whether women may offer the eucharist.
Egyptian · Church order
c. 397–400
Latin
Confessions
Confessiones
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A life told as prayer: a restless African rhetorician traces his own thefts, ambitions, and long detour through Manichaeism and Neoplatonism, then turns in the final books to memory, time, and the opening verses of Genesis.
382–405
Latin
The Vulgate
Jerome · c. 347–420
A new Latin Bible made, against loud objection, from the Hebrew rather than the Greek Septuagint, with prefaces defending each decision.
Western · Translation
c. 390–410
Greek
Commentary on the Twelve Prophets
Theodore of Mopsuestia · c. 350–428
A historically grounded reading of the minor prophets that refuses to find Christ under every verse, insisting each oracle first meant something to its own hearers.
Antiochene · Commentary