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.
201–300
6 works
c. 238–244
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185–c. 253
Sixteen sermons preached to an ordinary congregation, reading the days of creation, the ark, and the patriarchs for their moral and spiritual sense as much as their literal one.
c. 239–242
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Twenty sermons taken down by shorthand writers as Origen preached at Caesarea, wrestling with a God who says he repents, who deceives the prophet, and who hands his own people over — and refusing every easy way out of the difficulty.
c. 239–242; survives in Latin
Greek, surviving in Latin
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Sixteen sermons on the sacrificial code, opening with the flat claim that read literally these chapters are useless, and then reading every offering, every fat portion and kidney, as a movement of the soul or an aspect of Christ.
c. 240–244; survives in Latin
Greek, surviving in Latin
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Twenty-eight sermons on the wilderness, above all on the list of forty-two stopping places in chapter thirty-three, each read as a stage the soul passes through on its way out of Egypt.
c. 244; survives in Latin
Greek, surviving in Latin
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Thirty-nine short sermons on the infancy narrative and the opening of the ministry, opening with the observation that many had tried to write gospels and only four were approved — and naming some of the others.
c. 245–250; recovered in Munich in 2012
Greek
Origen of Alexandria · c. 185 – c. 253
Twenty-nine sermons on the Psalms, preached at Caesarea and read for centuries as the work of someone else. On Psalm 36 he tells his congregation that the man who is angry and does not sin is rarer than the man who does not become angry at all.
301–400
5 works
c. 378
Greek
Basil the Great · c. 330–379
Nine sermons on the six days of creation, preached morning and evening to a working congregation, refusing allegory and dwelling instead on the natural world as it actually is.
387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Twenty-one sermons preached to a terrified Antioch after a riot toppled the imperial statues and the city awaited punishment, holding the congregation together week by week.
386–387
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Eight sermons attacking members of his own congregation who attended synagogue festivals, in language of extreme violence.
c. 388–389
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Seven sermons on the rich man and Lazarus, arguing that not sharing surplus wealth is a form of theft from the poor.
c. 390
Greek
John Chrysostom · c. 347–407
Ninety sermons working through the whole gospel, insisting on the plain sense of the text and turning relentlessly to the poor at the church door.
401–500
7 works
c. 391–430
Latin
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
Some nine hundred surviving sermons taken down by stenographers as he preached, ranging from great feasts to ordinary weekdays, and often interrupted by the congregation.
c. 406–420
Latin
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
A hundred and twenty-four sermons through the fourth gospel, including the great treatment of the woman taken in adultery and the repeated call to love and do what you will.
392–418
Latin
Enarrationes in Psalmos
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
The only complete patristic commentary on all one hundred and fifty psalms, mostly preached, reading them as the voice of the whole Christ — head and body — speaking together.
c. 433–450
Latin
Peter Chrysologus · c. 380–c. 450
Around a hundred and eighty very short sermons from Ravenna, built on antithesis and wordplay, and rarely longer than a few minutes to deliver.
440–461
Latin
Leo the Great · c. 400–461
Ninety-six short sermons for the feasts and fasts of the Roman year, in a compressed and balanced Latin built for oral delivery.
c. 470–500
Syriac
Memre
Narsai · c. 399–c. 502
Metrical homilies from the school of Nisibis on creation, the incarnation, baptism, and the eucharist, in the Antiochene christological tradition.
c. 480–521
Syriac
Jacob of Serugh · c. 451–521
Hundreds of long homilies in twelve-syllable metre, called the flute of the Holy Spirit, meditating on biblical scenes with unhurried imaginative sympathy.
501–600
2 works
c. 503–542
Latin
Caesarius of Arles · c. 470–542
Around two hundred and fifty short sermons in deliberately plain Latin, attacking drunkenness, sorcery, and the survival of pagan festivals among nominally Christian peasants.
590–592
Latin
Gregory the Great · c. 540–604
Forty sermons on the gospel readings of the Roman year, preached during plague and siege, several of them dictated when he was too ill to speak.
701–800
2 works
c. 730
Latin
The Venerable Bede · c. 673 – 735
Fifty sermons for the monastic year at Jarrow, each taking the day's gospel line by line and turning it to the life the monks were actually living — short, plain, and built to be read aloud rather than studied.
c. 786
Latin
Paul the Deacon · c. 720–799
Patristic sermons selected and arranged for every day of the church year, commissioned by Charlemagne to give clergy something reliable to read aloud.
901–1000
3 works
c. 893–916
Old Church Slavonic
Clement of Ohrid · c. 840–916
Simple festal sermons written for newly converted Bulgarian congregations by a disciple of Cyril and Methodius who trained thousands of Slavonic clergy.
c. 971
Old English
Anonymous
Nineteen anonymous sermons, more apocalyptic and more willing to use legendary material than Ælfric would allow, including a vision of hell close to one in Beowulf.
c. 990–995
Old English
Ælfric of Eynsham · c. 955–c. 1010
Two series of sermons for the church year in clear rhythmic English, written because the author had seen much error in English books read by unlearned men.
1101–1200
3 works
c. 1147–1169
Latin
Isaac of Stella · c. 1100–c. 1178
Sermons of unusual philosophical seriousness on the soul, the church as the body of Christ, and the mercy owed to sinners by a community that shares their nature.
c. 1170–1180
Old French
Maurice de Sully · c. 1120–1196
Short model sermons in French for parish priests to deliver, explaining the gospel of the day in the plainest possible terms.
c. 1160–1182
Old Church Slavonic
Kirill of Turov · c. 1130–c. 1182
Festal sermons of high rhetorical polish, giving speeches to biblical figures and describing spring as the resurrection of the world.
1201–1300
1 work
c. 1270–1275
Old Church Slavonic
Serapion of Vladimir · d. 1275
Five sermons preached after the Mongol devastation, reading the catastrophe as judgement and denouncing the burning of accused witches as pagan cruelty.
1501–1600
2 works
1547; second book 1571
English
Thomas Cranmer and others
Official sermons to be read in parishes where the clergy could not preach, on scripture, salvation, faith, good works, and obedience to authority.
1549–1551
Latin
Heinrich Bullinger · 1504–1575
Fifty sermons covering the whole of Christian doctrine, written for clergy who needed a course of instruction they could preach through.
31 of 1780 works