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.
1–100
1 work
c. 70–100 (the Vision, chs. 6–11)
Greek, surviving complete in Ge'ez
Anonymous
Isaiah is carried up through seven heavens, each brighter than the last, and watches the Beloved descend through them disguised — taking on the form of each rank of angels so that none recognises him — until he is born, crucified, and climbs back in glory.
101–200
3 works
c. 108
Greek
Ignatius of Antioch · c. 35–c. 108
Written under armed guard on the road to execution in Rome. Ignatius urges the churches he passes to hold to their bishops and to the reality of Christ's flesh, and begs the Roman Christians not to intervene to save him.
c. 150–200
Greek
Anonymous
An answer to an enquirer who wants to know what sort of people Christians are. They live in their own countries as resident aliens, marry and bear children like everyone else, share a table but not a bed, obey the laws and outdo them, and are to the world what the soul is to the body.
c. 180
Greek
Adversus Haereses
Irenaeus of Lyons · c. 130–c. 202
Five books setting out the Gnostic systems in detail and then dismantling them, on the grounds that the God who made matter is the God who redeemed it, and that Christ recapitulates in himself everything Adam lost.
201–300
2 works
c. 206
Latin
De Carne Christi
Tertullian · c. 155–c. 220
Against Marcion and Valentinus, an insistence that Christ was born of a real woman with a real body — including the notorious argument that it is to be believed precisely because it is unfitting.
c. 200–275
Greek, surviving in Coptic
Anonymous
Badly damaged throughout. The priest of Salem receives a revelation of the end, is told to keep the book hidden, and appears to become the returning saviour figure himself — while the text insists, against docetists, that Christ truly ate, drank, was circumcised, suffered, and rose in the flesh.
301–400
3 works
c. 318
Greek
De Incarnatione Verbi Dei
Athanasius of Alexandria · c. 296–373
A short, unhurried argument that the Word took a body because a creation running back toward nothing could only be restored from inside it — and that the resurrection is the demonstrable proof, visible in martyrs who no longer fear dying.
c. 375–380; survives in fragments
Greek
Apollinaris of Laodicea · c. 310 – c. 390
A friend of Athanasius who pressed the unity of Christ until something had to give: the Word took a human body and a human animal soul, but stood himself in the place of the human mind, because two complete beings cannot become one and two wills would be two persons.
c. 385
Greek
Oratio Catechetica Magna
Gregory of Nyssa · c. 335–c. 395
A handbook for teachers rather than converts, arguing the faith differently against Jews, pagans, and heretics, and explaining the incarnation as a ransom that caught the devil like a fish on a hook.
601–700
1 work
c. 630–650
Greek
Maximus the Confessor · c. 580 – 662
Two centuries of short, deliberately difficult sentences on God, creation, and the Word made flesh, arranged so that the reader has to supply the connections. God is always willing to become man, one of them says, in those who are willing.
701–800
1 work
c. 726–730
Greek
John of Damascus · c. 675–749
A defence of icons written from safety under Muslim rule against a Christian emperor destroying them, arguing that since God took flesh, matter may be depicted and honoured.
1001–1100
1 work
1094–1098
Latin
Cur Deus Homo
Anselm of Canterbury · 1033–1109
A dialogue asking why the incarnation was necessary, answered in terms of honour and satisfaction: only a human being owes the debt, only God can pay it, so only a God-man can settle it.
1901–2000
1 work
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.
13 of 1780 works