The Library
1577 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.
1–100
1 work
c. 90–110
Greek
Didache ton dodeka apostolon
Anonymous
A short manual of Christian practice for a congregation still finding its footing: the Two Ways of life and death, then plain instructions for baptism, fasting, the eucharistic prayers, and how to tell a true travelling prophet from a freeloader.
101–200
4 works
c. 112
Latin
Epistulae X
Pliny the Younger · c. 61 – c. 113
A provincial governor's correspondence with Trajan, including the letter asking what to do about Christians. He has been executing those who persist, torturing two deaconesses, and finding nothing but a depraved and excessive superstition — they meet before dawn, sing to Christ as to a god, and bind themselves by oath not to steal or commit adultery.
c. 125–140
Greek
Aristides of Athens
A philosopher sorts humanity into races by what they worship — barbarians, Greeks, Jews, Christians — and argues that only the last have understood God, closing with a description of how they treat the poor.
c. 140–160
Greek
Anonymous
Not a letter and not by Clement: a plain sermon urging a congregation to think of Christ as they would of God, to repent while there is still time, and to match profession with conduct.
c. 155
Greek
Justin Martyr · c. 100–165
A philosopher's open letter to the emperor, answering the rumours that Christians were atheists and cannibals by simply describing what they believed and did — including the earliest detailed account of a Sunday gathering.
201–300
1 work
c. 208
Latin
De Virginibus Velandis
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
An argument that unmarried women should be veiled in church like everyone else, opening with the claim that custom must yield to truth because Christ called himself truth and not custom.
301–400
2 works
375
Greek
De Spiritu Sancto
Basil the Great · c. 330–379
An argument built on prepositions: Basil defends worshipping the Spirit with the Father and the Son, appealing to the church's unwritten liturgical practice as evidence of what it has always believed.
c. 386
Latin
Ambrose of Milan · c. 339–397
Short hymns in a plain marching metre, written to be sung by a congregation occupying a basilica against imperial troops.
1501–1600
3 works
1524
German
Martin Luther, Paul Speratus, and others
The first evangelical hymnbook — eight hymns, four by Luther — followed within months by larger collections for congregational use.
1526
German
Deutsche Messe
Martin Luther · 1483–1546
A vernacular order of service with hymns in place of the ordinary chants, and a preface hoping that a third form might one day gather those serious about being Christians.
1549; revised 1552 and 1662
English
Thomas Cranmer · 1489–1556
One book putting the whole worship of a church — daily prayer, communion, baptism, marriage, burial — into the language of the people, with a lectionary that walks a congregation through most of the Bible in a year.
1601–1700
1 work
1645
English
The Westminster Assembly
A replacement for the Book of Common Prayer giving ministers the substance and order of worship without a fixed text to read from.
1901–2000
1 work
1973
English
J. I. Packer · 1926–2020
Doctrine written for ordinary readers on the conviction that knowing about God and knowing God are different things: the attributes, the wrath, the adoption of believers as sons, each turned toward worship rather than left as information.
13 of 1577 works