The Library
1693 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.
1000–901 BC
1 work
c. 1000 BC
Akkadian
Saggil-kinam-ubbib
An acrostic dialogue in twenty-seven stanzas between a sufferer and his friend. The sufferer says the godless prosper and the pious starve; the friend defends the order of things; and by the end the friend concedes that the gods gave humanity crooked speech and lies from the beginning.
101–200
7 works
c. 140; lost, known through references
Greek
Aristo of Pella
A Jewish Christian and an Alexandrian Jew dispute the messiah from the prophets, and the Jew asks for baptism at the end. Celsus read it and thought it deserved pity rather than hatred; Origen defended it.
c. 100–150
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Apocryphon of James
Anonymous
Five hundred and fifty days after the resurrection the risen Lord returns while the twelve are sitting writing down what they remember, and takes James and Peter aside. Be full, be lacking; seek death as the dead seek life. Then he departs and the two try to follow him up and are called back.
c. 150
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
A badly damaged conversation between the Lord and Judas, Matthew, and Mary, on the crossing place, the garment of life, and what the disciples should pray. Mary asks the sharpest questions and is praised as one who understood completely.
c. 155–165
Greek
Justin Martyr · c. 100–165
A long, mostly civil debate with a Jewish interlocutor over whether the Hebrew scriptures point to Jesus, covering the law, the virgin of Isaiah, and the church's claim to be the true Israel.
c. 140–170
Greek
Epistula Apostolorum
Anonymous
A post-resurrection dialogue in which the risen Christ answers the eleven, written in the form the Gnostics favoured but arguing hard for a real body and a real resurrection.
c. 150–200
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Sophia Jesu Christi
Anonymous
The risen Saviour appears on a mountain in Galilee as an invisible spirit of light and answers twelve disciples and seven women, delivering the contents of Eugnostos as revelation rather than argument.
c. 197–250; date disputed
Latin
Minucius Felix
Three friends walking on the shore at Ostia fall into a debate on religion, conducted with Ciceronian courtesy and no appeal to scripture at all.
201–300
4 works
c. 200–250
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
The Saviour speaks to Thomas, called his twin, about the fire of lust that keeps souls drunk and bound to visible bodies, and pronounces a long chain of woes on those who hope in the flesh and in the prison that will perish.
c. 245
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185–c. 253
The stenographic record of a synod at which Origen cross-examines a bishop on the relation of the Son to the Father, and then on whether the soul is the blood.
c. 200–275
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
Peter writes to summon Philip back, the apostles gather on the Mount of Olives, and a voice out of a great light answers their questions about the deficiency of the aeons and the suffering they must expect. Then they go down to Jerusalem and heal.
c. 290
Greek
Symposion
Methodius of Olympus · d. c. 311
Ten virgins at a banquet deliver speeches in praise of chastity, in deliberate imitation of Plato's dialogue on love, closing with a hymn sung by the winner.
301–400
3 works
386–387
Latin
Soliloquia
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A dialogue between Augustine and his own reason, written at a country villa in the months between his conversion and his baptism, asking to know God and the soul and nothing more.
389
Latin
De Magistro
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A conversation with his teenage son Adeodatus about how words mean anything at all, concluding that no human being teaches another and that Christ teaches within.
388–395
Latin
De Libero Arbitrio
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A dialogue on where evil comes from if God is good, answering that evil is not a substance but a turning of the will away from the greater good to a lesser one.
401–500
1 work
447
Greek
Theodoret of Cyrus · c. 393–c. 460
Three dialogues against the view that Christ's humanity was absorbed into his divinity, arguing that the Word remained unchangeable and impassible while genuinely human.
501–600
2 works
c. 515
Greek
Zacharias Scholasticus · c. 465 – after 536
A dialogue set in the Alexandrian lecture rooms, in which a Christian student argues against his own professor that the world had a beginning, and that a craftsman who needs eternal matter is not a maker but an arranger.
c. 500–518
Greek
Aeneas of Gaza · d. c. 518
A Platonic dialogue arguing against the pre-existence of souls and the eternity of the world, and for the resurrection of the body.
601–700
1 work
c. 634–640
Greek
Doctrina Jacobi Nuper Baptizati
Anonymous
A dialogue among Jews forcibly baptised at Carthage, arguing about the messiah, and reporting in passing a prophet arisen among the Saracens.
701–800
2 works
c. 720–730
Syriac
Anonymous
A conversation between a monk and an Arab notable staying at his monastery, ranging over the cross, images, and why Christians do not pray toward a single direction.
c. 782–783
Syriac
Timothy I · c. 728–823
A patriarch's own record of two days of courteous questioning by the caliph on the Trinity, the crucifixion, and whether the gospels foretold Muhammad.
1001–1100
2 works
1026–1027
Arabic
Kitab al-Majalis
Elias of Nisibis · 975–1046
The record of seven courteous conversations with a Muslim vizier on the Trinity, the unity of God, and the merits of Syriac and Arabic as languages of learning.
c. 1080–1085
Latin
De Veritate
Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109
A search for what truth is in statements, in thought, in the will, and in things themselves, arriving at truth as rightness perceived by the mind.
1101–1200
1 work
1149
Latin
Anselm of Havelberg · c. 1100–1158
A record of debates held in Constantinople with a Greek archbishop on the filioque and papal authority, prefaced by an argument that the church legitimately changes over time.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1274–1276
Catalan
Ramon Llull · c. 1232–c. 1316
A pagan meets a Jew, a Christian, and a Muslim in a forest; each explains his faith courteously, and the book ends without saying which one the gentile chose.
1301–1400
2 works
c. 1347–1353
Latin
Secretum Meum
Francesco Petrarca · 1304–1374
An imagined dialogue in which Augustine cross-examines the author about his desire for fame and his love for Laura, and the author declines to be cured.
c. 1382–1383
Latin
John Wycliffe · c. 1328–1384
Truth, Falsehood, and Wisdom debate the whole of theology, summarising his mature positions on God, creation, the sacraments, and the corruption of the orders.
1401–1500
3 works
c. 1425–1441
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
The fourth book of the Imitation, circulating separately for much of its history: a dialogue between Christ and the communicant on approaching the sacrament.
1450
Latin
Idiota de Sapientia
Nicholas of Cusa · 1401–1464
An unlettered spoon-carver in the Roman forum instructs a professional orator and a philosopher, arguing that wisdom cries out in the streets and not only in books.
1453
Latin
De Pace Fidei
Nicholas of Cusa · 1401–1464
Written weeks after Constantinople fell: representatives of every nation and religion meet in heaven and find that beneath the variety of rites there is one faith.
1501–1600
2 works
1564
Nahuatl
Coloquios y Doctrina Cristiana
Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua elders
A reconstruction of the 1524 debates between the first friars and Aztec priests, giving the Nahua side space to argue that their gods gave them life and food.
1573–1581
Greek
Jeremias II of Constantinople · 1536–1595
Lutheran theologians send the patriarch a Greek Augsburg Confession; he replies with three long letters accepting some points and rejecting justification by faith alone.
1601–1700
1 work
1671
English
John Eliot · 1604–1690
Model conversations for Native preachers to use with their own relatives, written to be practised — and giving the sceptical side arguments of real force.
33 of 1693 works