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.
100–1 BC
1 work
c. 100 BC
Hebrew
1QS
Anonymous
The constitution of the yahad: how a candidate is examined over two years, how property is merged, how the seating is ordered, and the penalties — a hundred days for slandering a companion, thirty for falling asleep in session, expulsion for pronouncing the Name. At its centre stand two spirits, of truth and of falsehood, set in every heart until the appointed end.
1–100
1 work
c. AD 30–45
Greek
Quod Omnis Probus Liber Sit
Philo of Alexandria · c. 20 BC – c. AD 50
A Stoic thesis argued from Jewish examples, closing with a description of the Essenes — who hold no slaves, swear no oaths, and keep no private property.
201–300
1 work
c. 251–252
Latin
De Dominica Oratione
Cyprian of Carthage · c. 210–258
A clause-by-clause exposition insisting that the prayer is corporate from its first word: no Christian says my Father, because prayer is never private property.
301–400
3 works
c. 330–345
Coptic
Pachomius · c. 292–348
Regulations for a walled community of monks living, working, eating, and praying together under a superior, with detailed provision for admission, clothing, meals, and correction.
c. 358–375
Greek
Asketikon
Basil the Great · c. 330–379
Questions and answers on the common life, arguing that solitude makes the commandment to love one's neighbour unpracticable, and binding monks to hospitals, orphanages, and schools.
c. 397
Latin
501–600
1 work
c. 550–565
Greek
Dorotheus of Gaza · c. 505–c. 565
Seventeen talks to his own monks on humility, refusing to trust one's own judgement, and bearing with people — including the image of God as the centre of a circle from which all lives are radii.
1401–1500
3 works
c. 1400–1430
Latin
The Brethren of the Common Life
Arrangements for households of men or women living together in shared work and prayer without vows, supporting themselves by copying manuscripts.
1420
Czech
The community of Tábor
The demands of the radical Hussite wing: no purgatory, no images, no vestments, worship in barns if necessary, and a community holding goods in common.
c. 1440
Latin
Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471
Short lives of the founders and early members of the Devotio Moderna, written by a man who had known many of them personally.
1501–1600
1 work
begun c. 1565, continued for centuries
German
The Hutterian Brethren
The community's own record of its origins in Moravia, its communal ownership of goods, and the executions of its members, kept year by year.
1601–1700
1 work
1684
English
John Bunyan · 1628–1688
Christiana and her children follow her husband's road with a guide, a company of the weak, and Mr Great-heart to fight for them.
1901–2000
1 work
1939
German
Gemeinsames Leben
Dietrich Bonhoeffer · 1906–1945
A short account of the shared life of the Finkenwalde seminary — the day together, the day alone, confession, service — with a warning that a community which loves its own ideal of community will destroy the real one.
13 of 1780 works