The Library
1774 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.
301–400
2 works
c. 380–383
Greek
Gregory of Nyssa · c. 335 – c. 395
A vast reply to the claim that unbegottenness names God's essence. Gregory argues that names are human tools invented for human use, that God's essence is infinite and therefore unbounded by any concept, and that the soul's approach to God is a journey with no arrival — always further in, never at the end.
386–387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347 – 407
Twelve sermons preached at Antioch against Eunomians who claimed to know God's essence. Chrysostom points at the seraphim, who cover their faces, and asks what a man is doing measuring what angels will not look at directly — then closes each sermon by begging his congregation not to leave before the prayers.
501–600
2 works
c. 500–520; first cited 533
Greek
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Four treatises and ten letters written under the name of Paul's Athenian convert: on the divine names, on mystical theology, and on the ranked hierarchies of angels and of the church.
c. 500–520
Greek
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
Five very short chapters stripping away every name given to God, affirmative and negative alike, until the soul is united to the one beyond assertion and denial.
1301–1400
1 work
c. 1380–1395
Middle English
Anonymous
A shorter, warmer sequel by the author of The Cloud, answering a disciple's questions and insisting the work is simply to offer God the naked fact that you are.
1401–1500
1 work
1440
Latin
De Docta Ignorantia
Nicholas of Cusa · 1401–1464
God as the coincidence of opposites, approached only by knowing that we do not know — with a universe that has no circumference and no fixed centre.
6 of 1774 works