The Library
1780 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.
801–900
4 works
9th century; date disputed
Arabic
Anonymous
A pair of letters, one inviting a Christian to Islam and the other declining at length, criticising the Qur'an's composition and Muhammad's career directly.
c. 815–835
Arabic
Abu Ra'ita al-Takriti · c. 775 – c. 835
A Syriac Orthodox layman defending the Trinity and the incarnation in the vocabulary of Muslim theology, arguing that God's attributes of knowledge and life are what Christians call Word and Spirit, and explaining why the church venerates the cross.
c. 830–850
Arabic
Ammar al-Basri · 9th century
A defence of Christian doctrine framed as a test for distinguishing a true religion from a false one, arguing that Christianity spread without the sword, money, or tribal advantage.
c. 860–873
Arabic
Hunayn ibn Ishaq · 808 – 873
The caliph's chief translator sets out six reasons people adopt a religion — force, wealth, tribal loyalty, a persuasive orator, permission to indulge, and evidence — and argues that Christianity spread with none of the first five going for it.
1001–1100
1 work
1077–1078
Latin
Proslogion
Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109
A prayer that turns into an argument: seeking God, Anselm arrives at the thought of that than which nothing greater can be conceived, and concludes that such a being cannot exist in the mind alone.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1259–1265
Latin
Thomas Aquinas · 1225–1274
Four books arguing the faith without appeal to scriptural authority for the first three, on the grounds that with Muslims and Jews one cannot begin from a shared text.
1401–1500
2 works
1474
Latin
Marsilio Ficino · 1433–1499
An argument that religion is natural to humanity and that Christianity perfects what the Platonists and the ancient sages half-saw.
1497
Latin
Girolamo Savonarola · 1452–1498
A defence of Christianity by reason alone, arranged around the image of a triumphal chariot bearing Christ, written at the height of the author's power in Florence.
1601–1700
3 works
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.
published 1670
French
Pensées
Blaise Pascal · 1623–1662
Notes for an unfinished defence of Christianity, found after the mathematician's early death: the wretchedness and greatness of humanity, the hiddenness of God, the wager, and the heart's reasons that reason does not know.
1671
French
Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet · 1627–1704
A statement of Catholic teaching phrased to remove Protestant misunderstandings, minimising the distance on justification, images, and the saints.
1901–2000
3 works
1908
English
G. K. Chesterton · 1874–1936
Chesterton's account of how he tried to invent a philosophy of his own and discovered he had rediscovered Christianity — argued through paradox, fairy tales, and the claim that orthodoxy is the wildest of the options rather than the safest.
1925
English
G. K. Chesterton · 1874–1936
A history of the human race in two halves — before Christ and after — written to answer the popular evolutionary histories of the day by insisting that both man among the animals and Christ among men are discontinuities, not gradual steps.
1952, from wartime broadcasts
English
C. S. Lewis · 1898–1963
Radio talks given to wartime Britain and later gathered into one book: the moral law as a clue to the universe, then what Christians believe, Christian behaviour, and finally the doctrine of the Trinity — all in the plainest possible language.
41–54 of 54 matching · 1780 in the Library