African Theology

Adeyemo, Tokunboh, ed. Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African ScholarsGrand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.

Bediako, Kwame. Theology and Identity. Oxford: Regnum Books, 1992.

Bediako, Kwame. Christianity in Africa: The Renewal of Non-Western Religion (Studies in World Christianity) . Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1995.

Bediako, Kwame. Jesus And The Gospel In Africa: History And Experience (Theology in Africa Series) Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004

Bujo, Benezet. African Theology in Its Social Context Maryknoll, New York: Orbis Books, 1992.

Dickson, Kwesi A. Theology in Africa. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1984.

Majawa, Clement Chinkambako Abenguini. Integrated Approach to African Christian Theology of Inculturation. Nairobi, 2005.

Mbiti, John S. Bible and Theology in African Christianity. Nairobi: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Mbugua, Judy, ed. Our Time Has Come: African Christian Women Address the Issues of Today. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1994.

Mondo, Paulina Twesigye et al. Edited by Patrick Ryan. Faces of African Theology. The Catholic University of Eastern Africa, 2003.

Nyamiti, Charles. Studies in African Christian Theology, Vol. 1-2. Nairobi: CUEA Publications, 2005-6.

Parratt, John. Reinventing Christianity: African Theology Today . Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995.

Raboteau, Albert J. African-American Religion (Religion in American Life) . Oxford: OUP, 1999

Ryan, Patrick, ed. Theology of Inculturation in Africa Today: Methods, Praxis and Mission. Nairobi:CUEA Publications, 2004.

Sanneh, Lamin. Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (American Society of Missiology) .Maryknoll: Orbis, 1989.

Sanneh, Lamin. Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel beyond the West . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

Tienou, Tite, The Theological Task of the Church in Africa, Africa Christian Press.

Tienou, Tite, with Paul G. Hebert and R. Daniel Shaw, Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices , Grand Rapids:Baker, 1999.

Young, Josiah Ulysses. A Pan-African Theology: Providence and the Legacies of the Ancestors. Africa World Press, Inc., 1992.

 

African Christian History

Current Book Reviews on Issues in Africa

Egyptian Christianity

Atiya, Aziz S., ed. The Coptic Encyclopedia, Vols. 1-8. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1991.

Besa. The Life of Shenoute by Besa CS73 (Cistercian Studies Series) . Edited by J. Leipoldt and W. E. Crum.Translated by David N. Bell. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1983

Bowman, Alan K. Egypt After the Pharaohs: 332 B.C. - A.D. 642 from Alexander to the Arab Conquest , The University of California Press, 1986.

Cannuyer, Christian. Coptic Egypt: The Christians of the Nile (New Horizons) . New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001.

Davis, Stephen J. The Early Coptic Papacy: The Egyptian Church and Its Leadership in Late Antiquity (Popes of Egypt) (Popes of Egypt) . The American University in Cairo Press, 2004.

Gabra, Gawdat and Tim Vivian. Coptic Monasteries: Egypt's Monastic Art and Architecture . The American University in Cairo Press, 2nd printing 2004.

Goehring, James E. Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity (Sac) Series) . Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.

Griggs, C.W. Early Egyptian Christianity: From Its Origins to 451 Ce (Brill's Scholars' List) . Leiden: Brill, 1988.

Haas, Christopher. Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (Ancient Society and History) .Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Kammerer, W. A Coptic Bibliography. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1950.

Malaty, Fr. Tadros Y. Introduction to the Coptic Orthodox Church. Revised by Samy Anis and Dr. Nora El-Agamy. St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church, 1996.

_____. The School of Alexandria: Books One & Two: Origen. St. Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church, 1995.

Meinardus, Otto F.A. Coptic Saints and Pilgrimages . Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press, 2002.

______. Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity . Cairo: The American University of Cairo Press, 1999.

Mikhail, Maged S. A. and Mark Moussa, eds. Coptica. Vols. 1-4. Los Angeles, CA: Journal of the Saint Mark Foundation and Saint Shenouda the Archimandrite Coptic Society2002-2005.

Pearson, Birger A. Gnosticism and Christianity in Roman and Coptic Egypt (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity) .T&T Clark International, 2004.

Pearson, Birger A. and James E. Goehring, ed. The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity) . Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1992.

Roberts, C.H. Manuscript, Society, and Belief in Early Christian Egypt. London: Oxford Univ. Press for the British Academy, 1979.

Robinson, James M., ed. The Nag Hammadi Library . NY: Harper & Row Publishers, 1977.

Walters, C.C. Monastic Archaeology in Egypt. Warminster: Aris and Phillips, 1974.

 

Ethiopian Christianity

Maghrib

Abun-Nasr, Jamil M. A History of the Maghrib. Cambridge University Press, 1971.

Ennabli, Liliane. Christian Carthage. Tunis: Ministïre de la Culture, 2001.

Marcus, Harold G, A History of Ethiopia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Optatus: Against the Donatists. Translated and edited by Mark Edwards. Liverpool University Press, 1997.

Tilley, Maureen A. Donatist Martyr Stories: The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa. Liverpool University Press, 1996.

 

Nubia

Adams, W.Y. Nubia, Corridor to Africa. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1984.

Bowers, Paul. “Nubian Christianity: The Neglected Heritage.” Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology iv.1 (1985) 3-23.

Gohary, Jocelyn. Guide to the Nubian Monuments on Lake Nasser. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2005.

Gartkiewicz, Przemys?aw M. The Cathedral in Old Dongola and its Antecedents. Varsovie: PWN, ïditions scientifiques de Pologne, 1990.

Griffith, F. Ll. The Nubian texts of the Christian Period. Berlin : Verlag der Kïnigl. Akademie der Wissenschaften, in commission bei Georg Reimer, 1913.

Acta Nubica : proceedings of the X International Conference of Nubian studies, Rome, 9-14 September 2002. Edited by Isabella Caneva, Alessandro Roccati. Roma : Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, Libreria dello Stato, 2006.

Kirwan, Sir Laurence. Studies on the history of late antique and Christian Nubia. Edited by T. Hïgg, L. Tïk and D.A. Welsby. Aldershot : Ashgate Variorum, c2002.

 

Early Christian & Late Antiquity Resources

Dictionnaire de spiritualitï ascïtique et mystique: doctrine et histoire. Paris: Beauchesne, 1937-1995.

Di Berardino, Angelo and Basil Studer. History of Theology: The Patristic Period. Translated by Matthew J. O'Connell. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1996.

Dïpp, Siegmar and Wilhelm Geerlings. Dictionary of Early Christian Literature. New York: Crossroads Publishing, 1998.

Froehlich, Karlfried. Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.

Gorday, Peter. Principles of Patristic Exegesis: Romans 9-11 in Origen, John Chrysostom and Augustine. New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1983.

Kannengiesser, Charles. Handbook of Patristic Exegesis: the Bible in ancient Christianity. Boston: Brill, 2004.

Kugel, James L., and Rowan A. Greer. Early Biblical Interpretation. Edited by Wayne A. Meeks. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1986.

Lubac, Henri de. Medieval Exegesis: The Four Senses of Scripture. Translated by Mark Sebanc. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

Margerie, Bertrand de. An Introduction to the History of Exegesis. Petersham, MA: Saint Bede’s Publications, 1994.

McGuckin, John A. The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004.

Simonetti, Manlio. Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church: A Historical Introduction to Patristic Exegesis. Edited by Anders Bergquist, Marcus Bockmuehl. Translated by John A. Hughes. Edinburgh: T & T Clark Ltd, 1994.

Trigg, Joseph W. Biblical Interpretation. Message of the Fathers of the Church, vol. 9, Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1988.

Young, Frances M. “Alexandrian and Antiochene Exegesis.” In A History of Biblical Interpretation: The Ancient Period. Edited by Alan J. Hauser and Duane F. Watson. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.

________ Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture. Peabody, Mass: Hendrickson Publishers; Cambridge University Press, 1997.

Young, Frances M., Lewis Ayres, and Andrew Louth ed. The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2004.

 

Athanasius

Texts

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria from 328 to his death in 373, played a central role in the defense of the Council of Nicaea and its assertion of the full divinity of Christ. He was and is a complex and controversial figure and did much to create orthodox Christian doctrine as we now know it. The 19th-century Montfaucon edition of Athanasius' Greek works is reproduced in J. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, vol. 25-28. The 20th-century critical edition of his corpus is Athanasius Werke (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1934-2000):

·         Vol. I/I (ed. M. Tetz): Epistula ad Episcopos Aegypti et Libyae, Orationes I et II Contra Arianos, Oration III Contra Arianos.

·         Vol. II/1 (ed. H.-G. Opitz): De decretis, De sententia Dioynsii, Apologia de fuga sua, Apologia contra Arianos, Epistula encyclica, De morte Arii, Historia Arianorum, De synodis, Apologia ad Constantium.

·         Vol. III/1: Urkunden zur Geschichte des Arianischen Streites 318-328

Some of his works have been preserved in Syriac; for these, see R. W. Thomson, ed.,Athanasiana syriaca, 3 vols., Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium, vol. 257-258, 272-273, 324-325 (Louvain: SCO, 1965–1977). Other recent editions include:

Apologiae (Apologies): J. M. Szymusiak, ed., Deux apologies, Sources chrétiennes 56bis (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1987).

Contra gentes (Against the Nations) R. W. Thomson, ed. and trans., Athanasius: Contra gentes and De incarnatione, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971). See also P. T. Camelot, ed., Athanase d’Alexandrie: Contre les païens, Sources chrétiennes 18bis (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1977).

Epistolae ad Serapionem (Letters to Serapion) J. Lebon, ed., Lettres à Serapion sur la divinité du Saint Esprit, Sources chrétiennes 15 (Paris: Édition du Cerf, 1947).

Vita Antonii (Life of Antony) G.J.M. Bartelink, ed., Athanase d’Alexandrie: Vie d’Antoine, SC 400 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1994).

Translations

The bulk of Athanasius' works were translated in the 19th century by John Henry Newman and others in the Oxford movement. These are available as volume 4 in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, second series (1893; reprint: Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995); also available at various websites on the internet. These are slowly being replaced by new translations that draw on the updated critical edition:

Khaled Anatolios, ed., Athanasius, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2005). This opens with a lengthy introduction that includes both an overview of Athanasius’ life and world and a study of his theology; this is followed by new translations of some of Athanasius’ major works, including his On the Council of Nicaea (De decretis) and hisLetters to Serapion.

Robert C. Gregg, trans., Athanasius: The Life of Anthony and The Letter to Marcellinus, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1980). Athanasius' Life of Antony was one of the earliest Christian best-sellers and did much to popularize monasticism throughout the ancient world. It would also set the standard for all later lives of the saints. This volume also includes his Letter to Marcellinus, setting out how Christians should read and pray the Psalms.

David Brakke, Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). The appendix has translations of some of his letters preserved only in Coptic and Syriac. 

E.P. Meijering, Athanasius: Contra Gentes; Introduction, Translation, and Commentary, Philosophia Patrum: Interpretation of Patristic Texts 7 (Leiden: Brill, 1984).

Richard A. Norris, The Christological Controversy, Sources of Early Christian Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980). This has Athanasius’ 3rd Oration Against the Arians.

Robert W. Thomson, trans., Athanasius: Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971). The Greek text and English translation on facing pages.

Carolinne White, trans., Early Christian Lives, Penguin Classics (New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Contains a translation of the Latin version of the Life of Antony.

 4. ATHANASIUS: STUDIES

David Brakke, “Athanasius,” in Philip F. Esler, ed. The Early Christian World (New York: Routledge, 2000) 2:1102-1127. It is in large measure due to Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria from 328-373, that Nicaea survived. He combined shrewd, determined political action and a penetrating theology to rescue the faith of Nicaea. And he knew well that the stakes were Christian faith itself: that God is one and that Christ is true God. It is important to note that recent studies of Athanasius disagree with one another, sometimes sharply, about overall interpretation of Athanasius’ character and many details of his career. This brief overview introducers readers to the terms of the debate.

Khaled Anatolios, Athanasius: The Coherence of His Thought (New York: Routledge, 1998). A fine systematic overview of Athanasius as a theologian. Anatolios reads Athanasius in his own terms rather than in terms of Nicene terminology or of later issues (such as the christology of the 5th century).

Duane W.-H. Arnold, The Early Episcopal Career of Athanasius of Alexandria, (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1991) hardcover. Overly defensive.

Lewis Ayres, “Athanasius’ Initial Defense of the Term ‘Ομοούσιος: Rereading the De Decretis,”Journal of Early Christian Studies 12 (2004) 337-359.

Timothy D. Barnes, Athanasius & Constantius (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993). An unduly skeptical view.

David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998). A reprint of the earlier Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

David Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth-Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter,” Harvard Theological Review 87 (1994) 395-419.

James D. Ernest, The Bible in Athanasius of Alexandria, The Bible in Ancient Christianity 2 (Leiden: Brill, 2004).

W.H.C. Frend, “Athanasius as an Egyptian Christian Leader in the Fourth Century,” in Religion Popular and Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries (London: Variorum Reprints, 1976) 20-37.

Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in the Christian Tradition, vol. 1: From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon, rev. ed., trans. John Bowden (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1975). A classic; on Athanasius, see pp. 308-328.

William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). This has two chapters on Athanasius' Life of Antony.

Charles Kannengiesser, ed., Politique et Theologie chez Athanase d’Alexandre, Théologie historique 27 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1974).

Charles Kannengiesser, Athanase d’Alexandre, Évêque et Écrivain: Une lecture des traités Contre les Ariens, Theologie historique 70 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1983).

Charles Kannengiesser, Arius and Athanasius: Two Alexandrian Theologians, Collected Studies 353 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1991).

Charles Kannengiesser, “Athanasius of Alexandria and the Ascetic Movement of His Time,” in Asceticism, ed. Vincent Wimbush (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 479-492.

Wimbush, V. (1998). Asceticism. New York: Oxford University Press.

Richard A. Layton, Didymus the Blind and His Circle in Late-Antique Alexandria: Virtue and Narrative in Biblical Scholarship (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois, 2004). The first book-length study in English of Didymus.

Andrew Louth, “Athanasius’ Understanding of the Humanity of Christ,” Studia Patristica 16 (1985) 309-323.

J. Rebecca Lyman, Christology and Cosmology: Models of Divine Activity in Origen, Eusebius, and Athanasius, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Annick Martin, Athanase d’Alexandre et l’église d’Egypte au IVe siècle (328-373), Collection de l’École française de Rome 216 (Rome: 1996). The most exhaustive study of Athanasius’ career and context to date.

E.P. Meijering, Orthodoxy and Platonism in Athanasius: Synthesis or Antithesis? (Leiden: Brill, 1968 / 1974).

E.P. Meijering, “Athanasius on the Father as the Origin of the Son,” in God Being History: Studies in Patristic Philosophy (Amsterdam: North-Holland Pub. Co., 1975).

X. Morales, La théologie trinitaire d’Athanase d’Alexandrie, Études augustiniennes—antiquité(Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 2006).

Johannes Roldanus, Le Christ et l’homme dans la théologie d’Athanase d’Alexandre, Studies in the History of Christian Thought 4 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1977).

Thomas G. Weinandy, Athanasius: A Theological Introduction, Great Theologians Series(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007).

Peter Widdicombe, The Fatherhood of God from Origen to Athanasius, Oxford Theological Monographs, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

DelCogliano, M. (2011). Works on the Spirit: Athanasius's letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit, and, Didymus's On the Holy Spirit. Yonkers, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.

Behr, J. (2011). On the Incarnation. Yonkers, N.Y.: St Vladimir's Seminary Press.

 Augustine

1. AUGUSTINE: INTRODUCTIONS, BIOGRAPHIES & REFERENCE WORKS

William Harmless, ed., Augustine In His Own Words (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 2010), paperback, $35. NEW. Few thinkers have shaped Western civilization more powerfully than St. Augustine (354-430). This volume offers a comprehensive portrait—or rather, self-portrait, since its words are mostly Augustine's own—drawn from the breadth of his writings and from the long course of his career. One chapter is devoted to each of Augustine's masterpieces (Confessions, On the Trinity, and City of God) and one to each of his best-known controversies (against Manichees, Donatists, and Pelagians). It also explores the often overlooked facets of his career, namely, his everyday work as a bishop, preacher, and interpreter of the Bible. Augustine was an extraordinarily prolific writer, and his eloquent long-windedness can prove overwhelming not only to newcomers, but even to experts. Few know what to read first or how best to read him in context, given the complex and dauntingly remote world of Late Antiquity. This collection is designed to help readers not only to sort through his vast corpus of writings but also to tune their ears to the melodies of his speech and the swirl of his mind. What catches our ear today, as it caught the ear of Augustine's first hearers, is the heart beneath the voice, his uncanny ability to speak across the centuries, heart to heart, his heart to ours. His was an agitated eloquence, and he used it to ponder and wrestle aloud with life's mysteries, both those glimpsed in the epic of human history and those astir in the depths of the human heart. But Augustine's center and passion was another far greater mystery, the God he met in the Bible and in his heart. This book is an introduction, intended for first-time readers. It brings together a judicious selection of readings, including excerpts from newly discovered letters and sermons as well as from hard-to-find translations of his often formidable opponents.

Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo: a Biography, rev. ed. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000). This is certainly the best biography of Augustine—written with masterful insight and in masterful prose. Brown’s gift is to bring alive all the richly human tensions and depths of Augustine’s personality and world. This new edition has an epilogue on the newly discovered sermons and letters.

Serge Lancel, Saint Augustine (London: SCM Press, 2002). The first full-length biographical study to rival Brown’s study. It is especially good on the archeology of North Africa. Unlike Brown's work, it gives Augustine's theology its rightful attention. First published in French in 1999, this masterful study remains somewhat hard to find in the U.S.

Allan Fitzgerald, ed., Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999). An excellent reference work on Augustine, over 900 pages, surveying every aspect of his life, writings, theology, and influence. The best place place to begin one’s research on Augustine.

Gerald Bonner, St. Augustine: His Life and Controversies, 3rd ed. (Morehouse Publishing, 2002). A much-used one-volume study of Augustine’s theology; dated in many respects.

Henry Chadwick, Augustine of Hippo: A Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) NEW in paperback, $13. A good brief study, published posthumously.

Henry Chadwick, Augustine: A Very Short Introduction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Carol Harrison, “Augustine,” in The Early Christian World, ed. Philip Esler (New York: Routledge, 2001), vol. 2: 1205-1227.

Pierre-Marie Hombert, Nouvelles recherches de chronologie augustinienne, Collections des Études Augustiniennes, Série antiquité 163 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2000).

Cornelius Mayer, ed., Augustinus Lexikon, 3 volumes to date (Basel: Scwabe, 1986- ). A massive encyclopedia on Augustine, with first-rate articles written in one of three languages (German, English, French). This ambitious but slow-moving project will, at the present rate, take decades to complete.

Goulven Madec, Introduction aux ‘Revisions’ et à la lecture des oeuvres de saint Augustin, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Séries Antiquité 150 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1996).

James J. O’Donnell, Augustine: A New Biography (New York: HarperCollins, 2005). An astonishingly mean-spirited book. O'Donnell writes Augustine off as an untrustworthy "self-promoter" and seems intent on using his formidable scholarly expertise only to trash Augustine in misleading ways.

   2. AUGUSTINE'S WRITINGS: TEXTS

Latin Texts

Nearly all of Augustine’s works can be found in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 32-47. Migne reproduced the excellent 17th-century edition of the Benedictines of St. Maur. Recently, the publishers of Augustine’s works in Italian (the Nuova Biblioteca Augustiniana) have provided a valuable service to students of Augustine by posting this classic edition (for free!) on the Internet. Here’s the address: Click here

This older Patrologia Latina edition is slowly being replaced by modern critical editions in the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) and the Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina (CCL). The valuable, but still incomplete Bibliothèque Augustinienne(Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1949- ) has volumes with the Latin text and a French translation on facing pages, often with valuable introductions and notes.

Newly Discovered Letters & Sermons

Two groups of recently discovered texts have been the focus of much recent study. The first are a set of 29 letters: Johannes Divjak, ed., Epistolae ex duobus codicibus nuper in lucem prolatae, CSEL 88 (Vienna, 1980). The other are a set of 26 new sermons: Francois Dolbeau, ed. Vingt-six sermons au peuple d’Afrique, Retrouvé à Mayence, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 147 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1996). In May 2008, it was announced that four previously unknown sermons and two partly known sermons had been discovered by I. Schiller, D. Weber, and C. Weidmann. The new texts are preserved in a 12th-century manuscript in the Bibliotheca Amploniana in Erfurt, Germany. They will be published in a forthcoming publication of the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (Vienna).

   3. AUGUSTINE'S WRITINGS: TRANSLATIONS

Translations: Collections & Series

A number of Augustine’s works are found in two large series: Fathers of the Church (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press) and Ancient Christian Writers (New York: Paulist Press). See also the 8-volume collection in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 1st series, for 19th-century translations (and these can be found at various places on the internet). The best and most up-to-date collection is the following:

John E. Rotelle & Boniface Ramsey, eds., The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century (New York: New City Press, 1990- ). At long last, the whole Augustinian corpus is being steadily translated into English. This generally excellent series began in 1990 and may take another decade to complete. Volumes now available:

·         Part I, Vol. 1: The Confessions, trans. Maria Boulding (2002).

·         Part I, Vol. 5: The Trinity, trans. Edmund Hill (1991).

·         Part I, Vol. 8: On Christian Belief, trans. Edmund Hill, Ray Kearney, Michael Campbell, and Bruce Harbert; Michael Fiedrowicz (2005). Contains: True Religion, The Advantage of Believing, Faith and the Creed, Faith in the Unseen, Demonic Divination, Faith and Works, Enchiridion.

·         Part I, Vol. 9: Marriage and Virginity, trans. Ray Kearney (1999). Contains: The Excellence of Marriage, Holy Virginity, The Excellence of Widowhood, Adulterous Marriage, and Continence.

·         Part I, Vol. 11: Teaching Christianity, trans. Edmund Hill (1996).

·         Part I, Vol. 12: Responses to Miscellaneous Questions, trans. Boniface Ramsey, ed. Raymond Canning (2008). Contains: Miscellany to 83 Questions, Miscellany of Questions in Response to Simplician, Eight Questions of Dulcitius.

·         Part I, Vol. 13: On Genesis, trans. Edmund Hill (2003). Contains: On Genesis: A Refutation of the Manichees, Unfinished Literal Commentary on Genesis, and The Literal Meaning of Genesis.

·         Part I, Vol. 18: Arianism and Other Heresies, trans. Roland J. Teske (1995; 2007). Contains: Heresies, To Orosius in Refutation of the Priscillianists and Origenists,Answer to an Arian Sermon, Debate with Maximinus, Answer to Maximinus, Answer to an Enemy of the Law and the Prophets.

·         Part I, Vol. 19: The Manichean Debate, trans. Roland J. Teske (2006). Contains: The Catholic Way of Life and the Manichean Way of Life, The Two Souls, A Debate with Fortunatus, Answer to Adimantus, Answer to Felix, The Nature of the Good, andAnswer to Secundinus.

·         Part I, Vol. 20: Answer to Faustus a Manichean, trans. Roland J. Teske (2007).

·         Part I, Vol. 23: Answer to the Pelagians I, trans. Roland J. Teske (1997). Contains:The Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Little Ones; The Spirit and the Letter; Nature and Grace; The Perfection of Human Righteousness; The Deeds of Pelagius; The Grace of Christ and Original Sin; The Nature and Origin of the Soul.

·         Part I, Vol. 24: Answer to the Pelagians II, trans. Roland J. Teske (1998). Contains:Marriage and Desire; Answer to the Two Letters of the Pelagians; Answer to Julian.

·         Part I, Vol. 25: Answer to the Pelagians III, trans. Roland J. Teske (1999). Contains the massive Incomplete Work Against Julian (the first translation of this into English).

·         Part I, Vol. 26: Answer to the Pelagians IV, trans. Roland J. Teske (1999). Contains:The Gift of Perseverance, The Predestination of the Saints.

·         Part II, Vol. 1-4, Letters, trans. Roland J. Teske (2001-2005). A complete translation of Augustine's letters, including the recently discovered Divjak letters.

·         Part III, Vol. 1-10, Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill (1990-1995). A massive achievement, the first complete translation of Augustine’s Sermones ad populum. Superb, folksy style, occasionally idiosyncratic word choice and notes.

 

·         Part III, Vol. 11, Newly Discovered Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill (1998). A translation of the Dolbeau sermons.

·         Part III, Vol. 12 Homilies on the Gospel of John 1-40, trans. Edmund Hill (2009). NEW.  

·         Part III, Vol. 14, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, trans. Boniface Ramsey (2008). 

·         Part III, Vol. 15-20, Expositions on the Psalms, trans. Maria Boulding (2000-2004), 6 volumes. At last, a complete translation.

Translations: Other Individual Works & Anthologies: 

E.M. Atkins & Robert J. Dodaro, trans., Augustine: Political Writings, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Raymond Canning, trans. Augustine of Hippo: Instructing Beginners in Faith, The Augustine Series, Vol. V (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2006).

Henry Chadwick, trans., Augustine: Confessions, Oxford World's Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

R.W. Dyson, trans., Augustine: The City of God Against the Pagans, Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

R.P.H. Green, trans. Augustine: On Christian Teaching [De doctrina christiana], Oxford World's Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Gareth B. Matthews, ed. Augustine: On the Trinity [Books 8-15] Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

Eric Plumer, ed., Augustine’s Commentary on Galatians: Introduction, Translation, and Notes(New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

P.G. Walsh, ed Augustine: De Bono Coniugali, De Sancta Virginitate, Oxford Early Christian Texts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

 4. AUGUSTINE'S THEOLOGY: SURVEYS & COLLECTIONS OF ESSAYS 

Robert Dodaro & George Lawless, eds., Augustine and His Critics: Essays in Honour of Gerald Bonner (New York: Routledge, 2000). Augustine welcomed critics, and from the beginning his views have faced some sharp ones. This recent collection offers fresh perspectives on Augustine’s most controversial perspectives—and in the process debunks certain long-standing critiques of his work.

Carol Harrison, Augustine: Christian Truth and Fractured HumanityChristian Theology in Context (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000). A dense, but excellent survey of Augustine's theology. Organized not chronologically, but thematically.

Gerald Bonner, Church and Faith in the Patristic Tradition: Augustine, Pelagianism and Early Christian Northumbria(London: Variorum Reprints, 1996).

Gerald Bonner, St. Augustine: His Life and Controversies, 3rd ed. (Morehouse Publishing Co., 2002). A classic, but now rather dated. Despite the claim of this being a "new edition," it is essentially the same book as the one published in 1963.

Peter Brown, Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine (1972, reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007). A classic back in print at last.

Bernard Bruning et al., ed., Collectanea Augustiniana: Mélanges T.J. van Bavel, 2 vol. (Louvain: Leuven University Press, 1990).

John Burnaby, Amor Dei: A Study of the Religion of St. Augustine (1938, reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007). A classic back in print.

John Doody, Kevin L. Hughes & Kim Paffenroth, eds., Augustine and Politics, Augustine in Conversation: Tradition and Innovation Series (Lanham: Rowan & Littlefield, 2004).

Goulven Madec, Lectures Augustiniennes, Collections des Études Augustiniennes, Série antiquité 168 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2001).

Goulven Madec, Petites Études Augustiniennes, Collections des Études Augustiniennes, Série antiquité 142 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1994).

André Mandouze, Saint Augustin: L’aventure de la raison et de la grâce (Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1968).

Robert A. Markus, Augustine: A Collection of Critical Essays (Garden City, NJ: Anchor Books, 1972).

Robert A. Markus, From Augustine to Gregory the Great: History and Christianity in Late Antiquity, Collected Studies 169 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).

Robert A. Markus, Sacred and Secular: Studies on Augustine and Latin Christianity, Collected Studies 465 (Brookfield, VT: Variorum Reprints, 1994).

Cornelius Mayer, ed., Homo Spiritualis: Festgabe für Luc Verheijen OSA (Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag, 1987).

Karla Pollman and Mark Vessey, eds., Augustine and the Disciplines: From Cassiciacum to Confessions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Joseph C. Schnaubelt, Frederick Van Fleteren, ed., Augustine: Second Founder of the Faith, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1990)

Basil Studer, The Grace of Christ and the Grace of God in Augustine of Hippo: Christocentrism or Theocentrism? (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1997).

Basil Studer, “The Revelation of the Love of the Humble God According to Augustine,” Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church, ed. Andrew Louth (Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1993), 167-185.

Eugene TeSelle, Augustine the Theologian (1970; reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2002). A classic, now back in print.

Frederick Van Fleteren, Joseph C. Schnaubelt, & Joseph Reino, eds., Augustine: Mystic and Mystagogue, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1994).

  5. THE CONFESSIONS: TEXT, TRANSLATIONS & STUDIES

 

Text

James J. O’Donnell, ed., Augustine: Confessions, 3 volumes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992; reprint: 2000). Volume 1 has the Latin text of the Confessions, while volumes 2 and 3 are a paragraph-by-paragraph commentary. A gold mine of information, but one needs to know Latin to follow things. 

 

Translations

Augustine, Confessions, Oxford World’s Classics, trans. Henry Chadwick (reprint: New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). The Confessions is Augustine’s long meditation on his life and conversion (Bk. 1-9), on his interior life at the time he is writing (Bk. 10), and on the opening verses of Genesis (Bk. 11-13). One of the masterpieces of Western literature. This is best translation to date. Two other up-to-date translations:

·         Confessions, trans. Garry Wills, Penguin Classics (New York: Penguin Books, 2006).

·         Confessions, trans. Maria Boulding, Works of Saint Augustine I/1 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2002).

Studies:

Philip Burton, Language in the Confessions of Augustine (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

J. Patout Burns, “Ambrose Preaching to Augustine: The Shaping of Faith,” in Augustine: Second Founder of the Faith, ed. Joseph C. Schnaubelt and Frederick van Fleteren (New York: Peter Lang, 1990), 373-386.

John C. Cavadini, “Time and Ascent in Confessions XI,” in Augustine: Presbyster Factus Sum, eds. Joseph T. Lienhard et al., Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1993), 171-185.

Henry Chadwick, "History and Symbolism in the Garden at Milan," in F.X. Martin and J.A. Richmond, ed. From Augustine to Eriugena: Essays on Neoplatonism and Christianity in Honor of John O'Meara (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1991), 42-55.

Gillian Clark, Saint Augustine: The Confessions, Landmarks of World Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).

Pierre Courcelle, Recherches sur les Confessions de saint Augustine, 2nd ed. (Paris: E. de Boccard, 1968).

Brian Dobell, Augustine’s Intellectual Conversion: The Journey from Platonism to Christianity(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) hardcover, $75. NEW.

E. Feldman, “Confessiones,” Augustinus-Lexikon, ed. Cornelius Mayer (Basel: Schwabe, 1986), 1:1134-1194.

Paula Fredriksen, “Paul and Augustine: Conversion Narratives, Orthodox Traditions, and the Retrospective Self.” Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 37 (1986): 3-34. 

John P. Kenney, The Mysticism of Saint Augustine: Re-Reading the Confessions (London; New York: Routledge, 2005).

Annemaré Kotzé, Augustine’s Confessions: Communicative Purpose and Audience, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 71 (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2004).

Robert McMahon, Augustine’s Prayerful Ascent: An Essay on the Literary Form of the Confessions(Athens, GA: Georgia University Press, 1989).

Goulven Madec, “Le néoplatonisme dans la conversion d’Augustin: État d’une question centenaire (depuis Harnack et Boissier, 1888),” in Petites Études Augustiniennes, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 142 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1994), 51-69.

Robert J. O’Connell, St. Augustine’s Confessions: The Odyssey of Soul (New York: Fordham University Press, 1969).

John J. O’Meara, The Young Augustine: An Introduction to the Confessions of St. Augustine, 2nd ed. (1956; reprint: Alba House, 2001). A classic.

John J. O’Meara, “Augustine’s Confessions Elements of Fiction,” in Joanne McWilliam, Augustine: from Rhetor to Theologian (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1992) 77-96.

Kim Paffenroth & Robert Peter Kennedy, eds., A Reader’s Companion to Augustine’s Confessions(Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2003).

Aime Solignac, ed., Les Confessions, Bibliothèque Augustinienne 13-14 (Paris: Desclée de Bouwer, 1962). This has the Latin text with a facing French translation. Valuable introduction and commentary.

Kenneth B. Steinhauser, “The Literary Unity of the Confessions,” in Joanne McWilliam, ed.,Augustine: from Rhetor to Theologian (Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1992) 15-30.

Frances Young, “The Confessions of St. Augustine: What is the Genre of this Work?” (1998 St. Augustine Lecture) Augustinian Studies 30 (1999): 1-16.

Le Confessioni di Agostino (402-2002): Bilancio e prospettive: XXXI Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiana, Roma, 2-4 maggio 2002 (Rome: Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2003).

  6. AUGUSTINE THE PHILOSOPHER

Goulven Madec, Saint Augustin et la philosophie Notes critiques, Collections des Études Augustiniennes, Série antiquité 149 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1996). The subtitle captures the flavor: fine brief incisive comments on key issues.

Anne Isabelle Bouton-Touboulic, L’ordre caché: La notion d’ordre chez saint Augustin, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 174 (Paris: Institut d’Etudes Augustiniennes, 2004).

Peter Burnell, The Augustinian Person (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006).

Philip Cary, John Doody, and Kim Paffenroth, eds., Augustine and Philosophy, series: Augustine in Conversation: Tradition and Innovation (Lexington Books, 2010) paperback, $33. NEW.

Catherine Conybeare, The Irrational Augustine, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). A great study of Augustine's early philosophical dialogues.

Carol Harrison, Rethinking Augustine’s Early Theology: An Argument for Continuity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Simon Harrison, Augustine's Way into the Will: The Theological and Philosophical Significance of De libero arbitrio. Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Ragnar Holte, Béatitude et sagesse: Saint Augustin et le problème de la fin de l’homme dans la philosophie ancienne, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 14 (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1962).

Goulven Madec, “Augustine et son fils: Le Christ Maître intérieur,” in Lectures Augustiniennes, 43-58. Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série antiquité 168 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2001).

Gareth Matthews, Augustine, Blackwell Great Minds (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005).

Henri-Iréné Marrou, Saint Augustin et la fin de la culture antique, 4th ed. (Paris: de Boccard, 1958).

Joanne McWilliam, “The Cassiciacum Autobiography,” Studia Patristica 18/4 (1990): 14-43.

Robert J. O’Connell, St. Augustine’s Early Theory of Man, A.D. 386-391 (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1968). Very controversial, but threaded with valuable insights.

Robert J. O'Connell, Art and the Christian Intelligence in St. Augustine (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978).

Gerard J.P. O’Daly, Augustine’s Philosophy of Mind (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987)

Dominic J. O’Meara, Plotinus: An Introduction to the Enneads (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

John J. O’Meara, Studies in Augustine and Eriugena, ed. Thomas Halton (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1992). Value essays on Neoplatonism.

Karla Pollman and Mark Vessey, eds., Augustine and the Disciplines: From Cassiciacum to Confessions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

John M. Rist, Augustine: Ancient Thought Baptized (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994). A fine overview of the philosophical dimensions of Augustine's thought.

Ronnie J. Rombs, Augustine and the Fall of the Soul: Beyond O’Connell & His Critics (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006).

Brian Stock, Augustine’s Inner Dialogue: The Philosophical Soliloquy in Late Antiquity(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) hardcover, $85. NEW.

Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Augustine(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001).

Roland J. Teske, To Know God and the Soul: Essays on the Thought of St. Augustine. (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2008).

Roland J. Teske, Paradoxes of Time in Saint Augustine (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1996).

James Wetzel, Augustine and the Limits of Virtue (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992)

 

 7. AUGUSTINE THE BISHOP

Augustine was not just a theologian, but was also a struggling 5th-century North African pastor who had a flair for teaching and who meditated deeply on the complexities of the human heart. Peter Brown’s and Serge Lancel’s biographies offer helpful portraits of Augustine the bishop. Brown captures the mood and atmosphere of Augustine’s congregation and North African Christianity (pp. 183-206); Lancel does an excellent job on matters of archeology and incorporates perspectives from the recent Divjak letters (pp. 235-270). The classic study is Frederic van der Meer's Augustine the Bishop, trans. B. Battershaw and G.R. Lamb (London: Sheed and Ward, 1961); while badly dated in certain ways, it still has much to offer. The publication of 31 letters discovered by Johannes Divjak has opened new perspectives, especially on Augustine’s later years; see the studies in Claude Lepelley, ed., Les Lettres de saint Augustin découvertes par Johannes Divjak, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 98 (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1983). See also:

J. Patout Burns, "The Eucharist as the Foundation of Christian Unity in North African Theology,"Augustinian Studies 32 (2001): 1-23.

Henry Chadwick, “The New Letters of St. Augustine,” Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 34 (1983): 425-452; reprinted in Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Early Church (London: Variorum Reprints, 1991).

Daniel E. Doyle, The Bishop as Disciplinarian in the Letters of St. Augustine, Patristic Studies 4 (New York: Peter Lang, 2002). 

Jennifer V. Ebbeler, Disciplining Christians: Correction and Community in Augustine’s Letters, Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) hardcover, $75. NEW.

Erika Hermanowicz, Possidius of Calama: A Study of the North African Episcopate in the Age of Augustine, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). A helpful study of Augustine's friend, biographer and earliest editor.

Paul R. Kolbet, Augustine and the Cure of Souls: Revising a Classical Ideal (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), paperback, $45. NEW.

George Lawless, Augustine of Hippo and His Monastic Rule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990). A study (and translation) of Augustine's Praeceptum (Rule).

Fannie LeMoine and Christopher Kleinhenz, eds., Saint Augustine the Bishop: A Book of Essays(New York: Garland Publishing, 1994)

Joseph T. Lienhard, Earl C. Muller, and Roland J. Teske, eds., Augustine: Presbyter Factus Sum, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1993).

Erwan Marec, Monuments chrétiens d’Hippone: Ville épiscopale de saint Augustin (Paris: Arts et Métiers Graphiques, 1958). The classic archeological study of Augustine's church in Hippo.

Jane E. Merdinger, Rome and the African Church in the Time of Augustine (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997).

Othmar Perler, Les voyages de saint Augustin, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 36 (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1969).

Luc Verheijen, Saint Augustine’s Monasticism in the Light of Acts 4:32-35 (Villanova: Villanova University Press, 1979).

 

 8. AUGUSTINE THE PREACHER

Augustine was a highly trained orator and devoted his enormous rhetorical skills to preaching. Some 900 of his sermons still survive and give fascinating glimpses into his personality and his congregation. For a one-volume selection drawn from Augustine’s massive Sermones ad populum, see Daniel H. Doyle, ed., Saint Augustine: Essential Sermons, trans. Edmund Hill (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2007). Here are some basic studies:

Lewis Ayres, “Augustine, Christology, and God as Love: An Introduction to the Homilies on 1 John,” in Nothing Greater, Nothing Better: Theological Essays on the Love of God (ed. K. Vanhoozer; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2001), 67-93.

Henry Chadwick,“The New Sermons of St. Augustine.” Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 47 (1996): 69-91.

Roy Deferrari, “St. Augustine’s Method of Composing and Delivering Sermons,” The American Journal of Philology 43 (1922): 97-123, 193-219.

François Dolbeau, Augustin et la prédication en Afrique: Recherches sur divers sermon authentiques, apocryphes ou anonymes. Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 179 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2005).

Hubertus R. Drobner, Augustinus von Hippo: Sermones ad Populum; Überlieferung und Bestand, Bibliographie-Indices, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 49 (Leiden: Brill, 2000).

William Harmless, Augustine and the Catechumenate (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1995). This study examines Augustine's work as a teacher of candidates for baptism and reconstructs the complex rituals and training used in Augustine's North African church.

William Harmless, “The Voice and the Word: Augustine’s Catechumenate in Light of the Dolbeau Sermons,” Augustinian Studies 35 (2004): 17-42.

Daniel J. Jones, Christus Sacerdos in the Preaching of St. Augustine: Christ and Christian Identity, Patrologia: Beiträge zum Studium der Kirchenväter 14 (New York: Peter Lang, 2004).

Anne-Marie LaBonnardière, “Augustine, Minister of the Word of God,” in Augustine and the Bible, ed. Pamela Bright(Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1999), 245-251.

Goulven Madec, ed., Augustin Prédicateur (395-411): Actes du Colloque International de Chantilly (5-7 Sept, 1996), Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 159 (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1998). An excellent collection of essays on the sermons discovered in 1990 by François Dolbeau.

Christine Mohrmann, “Saint Augustin prédicateur,” La Maison Dieu 39 (1954): 83-96; reprinted in Études sur le latin des Chrétiens, 2nd ed. (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1961), vol. 1:391-402.

Robert J. O’Connell, Soundings in Augustine’s Imagination (New York: Fordham University Press, 1994). A study of image patterns in Augustine’s sermons.

Suzanne Poque, Le langage symbolique dans la prédication d’Augustin d’Hippone: Images héroïques, 2 vol., Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 105 (Paris: Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, 1984).

Eric Rebillard, “Sermones,” in Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia, ed. Allan Fitzgerald. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999), pp. 773-792.

Pierre-Patrick Verbraken, Études critiques sur les sermons authentiques de saint Augustin. Instrumenta Patristica XII (Steenbrugis: In abbatia S. Petri, 1976).

 9. AUGUSTINE THE EXEGETE

For an overview of Augustine’s biblical concerns and interpretative practices, see Michael Cameron, “Augustine and the Bible,” A Companion to Augustine, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World, ed. Mark Vessey (Oxford: Blackwell, forthcoming in 2010). Elements of Augustine's theory of biblical interpretation appear in his classic work On Christian Teaching (De doctrina christiana). For essays on this hugely influential work, see Duane W. H. Arnold and Pamela Bright, eds., De Doctrina Christiana: A Classic of Western Culture (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1995). See also:

Marie-François Berrouard, Introduction aux Homélies de saint Augustin sur l’Évangile de saint Jean. Collection des Études Augustiniennes: Séries Antiquité 170 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2004).

Isabel Bochet, ‘Le firmament de l’Escriture’: herméneutique augustinienne, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 174 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2004).

Pamela Bright, ed., Augustine and the Bible, Vol. 2 of Bible Through the Ages (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1999). Uneven editing, but some excellent essays. See especially: Michael Cameron, "The Christological Substructure of Augustine's Figurative Exegesis," pp. 74-103.

Michael Cameron, “Totus Christus and the Psychagogy of Augustine’s Sermons,” Augustinian Studies 36 (2005): 59-70.

Michael Fiedrowicz, Psalmus vox totius Christi: Studien zu Augustins Enarrationes in Psalmos (Freiburg: Herder, 1997).

Hugh Houghton, Augustine’s Text of John: Patristic Citations and Latin Gospel Manuscripts,Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

David G. Hunter, “Augustine, Sermon 354A*: Its Place in His Thought on Marriage and Sexuality,”Augustinian Studies 33 (2002): 39-60.

Thomas Martin, “Vox Pauli: Augustine and the Claims to Speak for Paul: An Exploration of Rhetoric at the Service of Exegesis,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (2000): 237-272.

Michael C. McCarthy, “An Ecclesiology of Groaning: Augustine, the Psalms, and the Making of the Church,” Theological Studies 66 (2005): 23-48.

Karla Pollmann, Doctrina Christiana: Untersuchungen zu den Anfängen der christlichen Hermeneutik unter besonderer Berücksichtigung von Augustinus, De doctrina christiana (Freiburg: Universitätverlag, 1996).

Joseph C. Schnaubelt & Frederick Van Fleteren, ed., Augustine: Biblical Exegete (New York: Peter Lang, 2001).

  10. AUGUSTINE'S DEBATE WITH THE MANICHEES

Manicheism

Iaian Gardner & Samuel N.C. Lieu, Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). Mani (216-276), born in Persian Mesopotamia, experienced a series of visions which convinced him that he was called to complete what earlier religious founders—Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus—had left incomplete. Mani believed himself called to found the first true world religion, the “Religion of Life,” and described himself as the “apostle of Jesus Christ.” His followers went further, calling him "the Paraclete." The religion he founded would last 1400 years and spread west to Spain and east to China and rival Christianity in the Roman Empire (Augustine spent 10 years as a member). This anthology of Manichaean texts gathers important and hard-to-find texts and is edited by two of the finest scholars on Manichaeanism. A major resource.

Jason David BeDuhn, ed., New Light on Manichaeism, series: Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Boston / Leiden: Brill, 2009).

Jacob Albert van der Berg, Biblical Argument in Manichaean Missionary Practice: The Case of Adimantus and Augustine, Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies 70 (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2010) hardcover, $147. NEW (126.95 Barnes and Noble).

Peter Brown, “The Diffusion of Manichaeism in the Roman Empire,” Journal of Roman Studies 59 (1969) 92-103; reprinted in Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine (New York: Harper & Row, 1972) 94-118.

J. Kevin Coyle, Manichaeism and Its Legacy, Nag Hammadi & Manichaean Studies (Leiden / Boston: Brill, 2009).

F. Decret, L’Afrique manichéenne (IVe-Ve siècles): Étude historique et doctrinale, 2 vol. (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1978).

Samuel N.C. Lieu, Manichaeism in the Later Roman Empire and Mediaeval China (Manchester: University of Manchester, 1985; 2nd ed. Tübingen: Mohr, 1992).

Samuel N.C. Lieu, “Manichaeism,” in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, ed. Susan Ashbrook Harvey and David G. Hunter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 221-236.

Michel Tardieu, Manichaeism, trans. Malcolm DeBevoise (University of Illinois Press, 2009).

 

Augustine's Response:

Roland J. Teske, trans., The Manichean Debate, Works of Saint Augustine I/19 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2006). A valuable and up-to-date translation of Augustine's works against the Manichees. Teske is one of the top contemporary Augustinian translators and is also a careful and lucid interpreter. A good place to start.

Jason BeDuhn, Augustine's Manichaean Dilemma, Vol. 1: Conversion and Apostasy, 373-388 C.E., Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009) hardcover, $70. NEW (62.96 Amazon). A revisionist interpretation seeing Augustine from a Manichean perspective.

J. Kevin Coyle, Augustine's "De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae": A Study of the Work, Its Composition and Its Sources, Paradosis 25 (Fribourg: University Press, 1978).

J. Kevin Coyle, “Saint Augustine’s Manichean Legacy,” Augustinian Studies 34 (2003): 1-22.

G.R. Evans, Augustine on Evil (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1982).

Paula Fredriksen, Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of Jews and Judaism (New York: Doubleday, 2008).

Goulven Madec, “Vnde malum? Le livre I du De libero arbitrio,” in Petites Études Augustiniennes, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 142 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 1994), pp. 121-135.

Roland J. Teske, “Augustine, the Manichees and the Bible,” in Pamela Bright, ed., Augustine and the Bible (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1999), 208-221.

N. Joseph Torchia, ‘Creatio Ex Nihilo’ and the Theology of St. Augustine, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1999).

Johannes Van Oort, Otto Wermelinger & Gregor Wurst, eds., Augustine and Manichaeism in the Latin West (Leiden: Brill, 2001).

  11. AUGUSTINE'S DEBATE WITH THE DONATISTS

Texts & Translations:

Mark Edwards, ed., Optatus: Against the Donatists, Translated Texts for Historians 27 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1998).

Maureen A. Tilley, trans. Donatist Martyr Stories: The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa, Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1997).

Studies

James Alexander, "Donatism," in Philip F. Esler, The Early Christian World (New York: Routledge, 2000), 2:952-974.

Marie-François Berrouard, “Un combat pour l’honneur du Christ: La controverse antidonatiste des Tractatus.” Introduction aux Homélies de saint Augustin sur l’Évangile de saint Jean, Collection des Études Augustiniennes: Séries Antiquité 170 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2004), 55-78.

Gerald Bonner, “Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia? St. Augustine on History and Society,”Augustinian Studies 2 (1971) 231-251.

Peter Brown, “St. Augustine’s Attitude to Religious Coercion,” Journal of Roman Studies 54 (1964): 107-116; also in Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (1972; reprint: Wipf & Stock, 2004).

Yves Congar, "Introduction générale.” Traité anti-Donatistes, Volume 1. Oeuvres de saint Augustin, Bibliotheque Augustinienne 28 (Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1963), 9-133.

F.E. Cranz, “The Development of Augustine’s Ideas on Society Before the Donatist Controversy,”Harvard Theological Review 47 (1954): 255-316; reprint: in R.A. Markus, Augustine: A Collection of Critical Essays (Garden City, NJ: Anchor Books, 1972).

W.H.C. Frend, The Donatist Church: A Movement of Protest in Roman North Africa (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952; 1972). A classic, now dated in its assessments.

R.A. Markus, "Christianity and Dissent in Roman North Africa: Changing Perspectives in Recent Work," Studies in Church History 9 (1972): 21-36.

Paul Monceaux, Histoire littéraire de l’Afrique chrétienne: Depuis les origenes jusqu’à l’invasion arabe, 7 vol. (1912-1923: reprint: Bruxelles: Culture et Civilisation, 1966). A classic, dated but still worth consulting. Vol. 4-6 treat survey the major writers and the history of the controversy up to Augustine. Vol. 7 surveys Augustine's views and experience.

Maureen A. Tilley, The Bible in Christian North Africa: The Donatist World (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1997).

G.G. Willis, St. Augustine and the Donatist Controversy (London: SPCK, 1952; reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2005). A classic.

   12. AUGUSTINE THE THEOLOGIAN: On the Trinity (De Trinitate)

Lewis Ayres, Augustine and the Trinity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) hardcover, $80. NEW (68$ Amazon). Over the last decade, Lewis Ayres and Michel Barnes have been at forefront of rethinking Augustine's approach to the Trinity, and in process, have successful debunked old stereotypes and demonstrated Augustine's creativity and distinctiveness within the complex pro-Nicene developments of the late 4th-century. In this new work, Ayres brings together his thinking in a systematic way. See also his and Barnes's essays below:

Lewis Ayres, “The Fundamental Grammar of Augustine’s Trinitarian Theology,” in R. Dodaro and G. Lawless, Augustine and His Critics (New York: Routledge, 2000) 51-76.

Lewis Ayres, “The Christological Context of Augustine’s De trinitate XIII: Toward Relocating Books VIII-XV,” Augustinian Studies 29 (1998) 111-139.

Lewis Ayres, “‘Remember That You are Catholic’ (serm. 52.2): Augustine on the Unity of the Triune God,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (2000) 39-82.

Michel R. Barnes, “Re-reading Augustine’s Theology of the Trinity,” in S.T. Davis, D. Kendall, & G. O’Collins, eds., The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Doctrine of the Trinity(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999) pp. 145-176.

Michel R. Barnes, “Exegesis and Polemic in Augustine’s De Trinitate I,” Augustinian Studies 30 (1999) 43-60.

Michel R. Barnes, “The Arians of Book V, and the Genre of De Trinitate,” Journal of Theological Studies, n.s. 44 (1993) 185-195.

Michel R. Barnes, “Augustine in Contemporary Trinitarian Theology,” Theological Studies 56 (1995) 237-50.

John Cavadini, “The Structure and Intention of Augustine’s De trinitate,” Augustinian Studies 23 (1992) 103-123; reprinted in Christianity in Relation to Jews, Greeks, and Romans, Recent Studies in Early Christianity 2, ed. E. Ferguson (New York: Garland, 1999) 231-252.

Paul van Geest, The Incomprehensibility of God: Augustine as a Negative Theologian, Late Antique History and Religion, vol. 4 (Leuven: Peeters, 2011) hardcover, $95. NEW ($79.20 Amazon).

Luigi Gioia, The Theological Epistemology of Augustine’s De Trinitate, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). A fine comprehensive study.

Andrew Louth, “Love and the Trinity: Saint Augustine and the Greek Fathers” (The 2001 St. Augustine Lecture) Augustinian Studies 33.1 (2002) 1-16.

Goulven Madec, Le Christ de saint Augustin: La patrie et la voie (Paris: Desclée, 2001).

Olivier du Roy, L'intelligence de la foi en la Trinitaté selon s. Augustin: genèse de sa théologie trinitaire jusqu'en 391(Paris: Études augustiniennes, 1966).

Basil Studer, “History and Faith in Augustine’ De Trinitate” (The 1996 Saint Augustine Lecture),Augustinian Studies 28.1 (1997) 7-50.

Basil Studer, "Augustin et la foi de Nicée," Recherches Augustiniennes 19 (1984): 133-154.

Robert Wilken, "Spiritus sanctus secundum scripturas sanctas: Exegetical Considerations of Augustine on the Holy Spirit," Augustinian Studies 31 (2000): 1-18.

Rowan Williams, "Trinitate, De," in Allan Fitzgerald, Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999) 845-851.

Rowan Williams, "Sapientia and the Trinity: Reflections on De Trinitate," in B. Bruning et al.,Collectanea Augustiniana: Melanges T.J. Van Bavel (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1990) 317-332.

  13. AUGUSTINE'S DEBATE WITH THE PAGANS: The City of God (De civitate Dei)

Gerard O’Daly, Augustine’s City of God: A Reader’s Guide (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). This is an excellent introduction and overview of Augustine’s magnum opus.

P. Curbelié, La justice dans La Cité de Dieu, Collections des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 171 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2004).

Robert Dodaro, Christ and the Just Society in the Thought of Augustine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).

Dorothy F. Donnelly, ed., The City of God: A Collection of Critical Essays (New York: Peter Lang, 1995).

Miles Hollingworth, The Pilgrim City: St. Augustine of Hippo and His Innovation in Political Thought (New York: T&T Clark / Continuum, 2010) paperback, $35. NEW.

Robert A. Markus, Saeculum: History and Society in the Theology of Saint Augustine, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988). A masterful study.

Oliver O’Donovan, “Augustine’s City of God XIX and Western Political Thought.” Dionysius 11 (1987): 89-110.

John O’Meara, Charter of Christendom: The Significance of the City of God, Saint Augustine Lecture 1961 (New York: Macmillan, 1961).

Mikka Ruokanen, Theology of Social Life in Augustine’s De civitate Dei. Forschungen zur Kirchen- und Dogmengeschichte, Band 53 (Göttingen: Vandenbork & Ruprecht, 1993).

Johannes Van Oort, Jerusalem and Babylon: A Study into Augustine’s City of God and the Sources of His doctrine of the Two Cities, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 14 (Leiden: Brill, 1991).

Mark Vessey, Karla Pollmann, and Allan Fitzgerald, eds., History, Apocalypse, and the Secular Imagination: New Essays on Augustine’s City of God (Philosophy Documentation Center, 1999).

Paul Weithman, “Augustine’s Political Philosophy,” in Eleonore Stump and Norman Kretzmann, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Augustine (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001)234-252.

  14. AUGUSTINE'S DEBATE WITH THE PELAGIANS

Pelagius & the Pelagians: Historical scholarship over the last 80 years has done much to strip away centuries of misunderstanding fostered by medieval and Reformation anti-Pelagian polemic. Drawing on Pelagius’ genuine works, a more balanced (and more sympathetic) view of Pelagius and of those he inspired has emerged. Also we have a new appreciation of the intricate and complex unfolding of the events of the Pelagian Controversy, arguably Augustine's most complex theological debate. For a translation of key writings of Pelagius and his allies, see B.R. Rees, Pelagius: Life and Letters (Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 1991). For a balanced presentation and assessment of Pelagius’ theology, see Robert F. Evans, Pelagius: Inquiries and Reappraisals (New York: Seabury Press, 1968). On his aristocratic social milieu, see Peter Brown, “Pelagius and His Supporters: Aims and Environment,” in Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007), 183-207. 

Gerald Bonner, Augustine and Modern Research on Pelagianism, Saint Augustine Lecture 1970 (Villanova: Villanova University Press, 1972).

Theodore DeBruyn, trans. Pelagius’ Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Oxford Early Christian Studies(New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Mathijs Lamberigts, “Pelagius and Pelagians,” in Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, ed. Susan Ashbrook Harvey and David G. Hunter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 258-279.

Mathijs Lamberigts, “Competing Christologies: Julian and Augustine on Jesus Christ,” Augustinian Studies 36 (2005): 159-194.

Josef Lössl, Julian von Aeclanum: Studien zu seinem Leben, seinem Werk, seiner Lehre und ihrer Überlieferung, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 60 (Leiden: Brill, 2001).

Eugene TeSelle, “Rufinus the Syrian, Caelestius, Pelagius: Explorations in the Pre-History of the Pelagian Controversy,” Augustinian Studies 3 (1972) 61-95.

Augustine's Response.

 For an excellent collection of Augustine's anti-Pelagian writings drawn from the Works of St. Augustine series, see Roland Teske, trans., Select Writings on Grace and Pelagianism (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2011), 530 pp., paperback, $40. NEW($35.96 Amazon). This opens with the pivotal Miscellany of Questions to Simplicianus, where Augustine first articulated his views on grace nearly 15 years before encountering Pelagius, then follows with the most important anti-Pelagian treatises (Punishment and Forgiveness of Sins and the Baptism of Little Ones, The Spirit and the Letter, Nature and Grace), then the late (and controversial) works replying to the monks of southern Gaul (The Predestination of the Saints and The Gift of Perseverance).

On Augustine’s role in the anti-Pelagian controversy, see Serge Lancel, Saint Augustine, pp. 325-365 (on Pelagius) and 413-438 (on Julian of Eclanum and the monastic reaction); and Peter Brown Augustine of Hippo, pp. 340-377 (on Pelagius) and 383-410 (on Julian and the monastic reaction), as well as 465-468 and 491-493 (Brown’s “reconsiderations” of his 1968 portrait of the late Augustine). 

On Augustine’s theology of grace and predestination, see especially J. Patout Burns, The Development of Augustine’s Doctrine of Operative Grace, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Série Antiquité 82 (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1980), which skillfully traces the often subtle evolution of Augustine’s theology of grace prior to, during, and through the Pelagian Controversy. See also:

Gerald Bonner, Freedom and Necessity: St. Augustine’s Teaching on Divine Power & Human Freedom (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

J. Patout Burns, “The Interpretation of Romans in the Pelagian Controversy,” Augustinian Studies10 (1979): 43-54.

J. Patout Burns, “Augustine’s Role in the Imperial Action Against Pelagius,” Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 30 (1979): 67-83.

Robert Dodaro, “Sacramentum Christi: Augustine on the Christology of Pelagius,” Studia Patristica 27 (1993): 274-280.

Geoffrey D. Dunn, "Augustine, Cyril of Alexandria, and the Pelagian Controversy," Augustinian Studies 37, no. 1 (2006) 63-88.

William Harmless, “Christ the Pediatrician: Augustine on the Diagnosis and Treatment of the Injured Vocation of the Child,” in The Vocation of the Child, ed. Patrick McKinley Brennan (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), pp. 127-153.

Pierre-Marie Hombert, Gloria Gratiae: Se glorifier en Dieu, principe et fin de la théologie augustinienne de la grâce, Collection des Études Augustiniennes, Serie Antiquité 148 (Paris: Institut d’Études Augustinienne, 1996).

James Wetzel, "Snares of Truth: Augustine on Free will and Predestination," in Robert Dodaro & George Lawless, eds., Augustine and His Critics (New York: Routledge, 2000) 124-141.

James Wetzel, “Pelagius Anticipated: Grace and Election in Augustine’s Ad Simplicianum,” in Augustine: From Rhetor to Theologian, ed. Joanne McWilliam (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1992), pp. 121-132.

 15. AUGUSTINE'S DISCUSSIONS WITH THE MONKS OF GAUL

In the aftermath of the Pelagian controversy, Augustine received inquiries from a fervent disciple in southern Gaul, Prosper of Aquitaine, who complained that local holy men were critical of Augustine's views. This has long been referred to as the "Semi-Pelagian" Controversy. Recent studies have rendered this terminology out of date and have stressed seeing the reaction of the Gallic monks in terms both of local concerns and of emerging Christian monasticism. On developments in Gaul, see Conrad Leyser, Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great, Oxford Historical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001). One major monastic leader based in Marseilles who disagreed with Augustine was John Cassian. On his life and spiritual theology, see Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk, Oxford Studies in Historical Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). See also:

A.M.C. Casiday, Tradition and Theology in St. John Cassian, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Rebecca H. Weaver, Divine Grace and Human Agency: A Study of the Semi-Pelagian Controversy(Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1996)

 THE EARLY CHRISTIAN BIBLE: CANON & INTERPRETATION

John O'Keefe & R.R. Reno, Sanctified Vision: An Introduction to Early Christian Interpretation of the Bible (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2005). A valuable and provocative aid to understanding the uniqueand often misunderstoodreading strategies of the Church Fathers. While the authors discuss traditional categories such as "allegory" and "typology," their approach challenges old dichotomies. Thomas C. Oden & Christopher H. Hall, eds., The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, 17 volumes to date (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1998- ). The Ancient Christian Commentary revives the medieval tradition of the glossa ordinaria. It takes the biblical text verse by verse and quotes what various Church Fathers said about it. It is projected to be 27 volumes and will draw on ancient commentaries in Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Coptic. Now available:

• OT Vol. 1a: Andrew Louth, ed., Genesis 1-13 (2001).

• OT Vol. 1b: Mark Sheridan, ed., Genesis 12-50 (2002).

• OT Vol. 3: Joseph Lienhard, ed., Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (2001). • OT Vol. 4: John R. Franke, ed., Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel (2005).

• OT Vol. 5: Marco Conti, ed., 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther (2008).

• OT Vol. 6: Manlio Simonetti & Marco Conti, ed., Job (2006).

• OT Vol. 8: Quentin F. Wesselschmidt, ed., Psalms 51-150 (2007).

• OT Vol. 9: J. Robert Wright, ed., Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon (2005).

• OT Vol. 10: Steven A. McKinion, ed. Isaiah 1-39 (2004).

• OT Vol. 11: M.W. Elliott, ed. Isaiah 40-66 (2007)

• OT Vol. 13: Kenneth Stevenson, ed., Ezekiel, Daniel (2008).

• OT Vol. 14: Alberto Ferreiro, ed., The Twelve Prophets (2003).

• NT Vol. 1a: Manlio Simonetti, ed., Matthew 1-13 (2002).

• NT Vol. 1b: Manlio Simonetti, ed., Matthew 14-28 (2002).

• NT Vol. 2: Thomas C. Oden & Christopher Hall, ed. Mark (1998).

• NT Vol. 3: Arthur A. Just, Jr., ed., Luke (2003).

• NT Vol. 4a: Joel C. Elowsky, ed., John 1-11 (2006).

• NT Vol. 4b: Joel C. Elowsky, ed., John 11-21 (2007).

• NT Vol. 5: Francis Martin, ed., Acts (2006).

• NT Vol. 6: Gerald Bray, ed., Romans (1998).

• NT Vol. 7: Gerard Bray, ed. 1-2 Corinthians (1999).

• NT Vol. 8: Mark Edwards, ed., Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians (1999).

• NT Vol. 9: Peter Gorday, ed., Colossians, 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon (2000). • NT Vol. 10: Erik M. Heen & Philip D.W. Krey,eds., Hebrews (2005).

• NT Vol. 11: Gerald Bray, ed., James, 1-2 Peter, 1-3 John, Jude (2000)

Harry Y. Gamble, Books and Readers in the Early Church: A History of Early Christian Texts (New Haven: Yale, 1995). A wonderfully original study. Gamble explores how ancient books were made, how scribes did their work of copying, how authors published their works, how libraries—pagan, Jewish, and Christian—worked, how Christians came to collect the books that made up the New Testament, and how reading came to be a highly favored spiritual activity for Christians. Paul M. Blowers, ed., The Bible in Greek Christian Antiquity (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997).

Paul M. Blowers, ed., In Dominico Eloquio / In Lordly Eloquence: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert Louis Wilken (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2002).

Charles A. Bobertz and David Brakke, eds., Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).

David Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth-Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter,” Harvard Theological Review 87 (1994) 395-419.

Philip Burton, The Old Latin Gospels: A Study of Their Texts and Language, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Hans von Campenhausen, The Formation of the Christian Bible (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972).

David R. Cartlidge & J.K. Elliott, Art and the Christian Apocrypha (New York: Routledge, 2001).

Elizabeth A. Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).

David Dawson, Allegorical Readers and Cultural Revision in Ancient Alexandria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).

David L. Dungan, Constantine’s Bible: Politics and the Making of the New Testament(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007).

Bart D. Ehrman, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. 

J.K. Elliott, ed., The Apocryphal New Testament (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). A massive collection of non-canonical works.

Everett Ferguson, ed., The Bible in the Early Church, Studies in Early Christianity 3 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993).

Karlfried Froelich, ed., Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church, Sources of Early Christian Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984).

Karlfried Froehlich, Biblical Interpretation from the Church Fathers to the Reformation, series: Variorum Collected Studies 951 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2010) hardcover, $135. NEW.

Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams, Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea (Cambridge, MA: Belknap / Harvard University Press, 2006).

Alan J. Hauser & Duane F. Watson, eds., A History of Biblical Interpretation, Vol. 1: The Ancient Period (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2002).

C.E. Hill, Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) hardcover, $28. NEW. A major study challenging recent post-modern accounts of the formation of the Christian canon of Scripture.

Michael J. Hollerich, Eusebius of Caesarea’s Commentary on Isaiah: Christian Exegesis in the Age of Constantine, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University, 1999).

William E. Klingshirn and Linda Safran, eds., The Early Christian Book, CUA Studies in Early Christianity(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

Joseph T. Lienhard, The Bible, the Church, and Authority: the Canon of the Christian Bible in History and Theology(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1995).

Bruce Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament: Its Origin, Development, and Significance(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).

Manlio Simonetti, Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church: An Historical Introduction to Patristic Exegesis(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1994).

Joseph Trigg, ed., Biblical Interpretation, Message of the Fathers 9 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1984).

Daniel H. Williams, ed., Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church, Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church’s Future (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006).

Megan Hale Williams, The Monk and the Book: Jerome and the Making of Christian Scholarship(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006).

SPIRITUALITY OF THE CHURCH FATHERS: STUDIES

NOTE: The Church Fathers rarely discuss “spirituality” separate from biblical interpretation or doctrinal debate or liturgical mystagogy. For them, Christian theology was all of a piece. The split between doctrine (or exegesis) and spirituality is essentially a medieval invention—whatever one thinks of the result. Nonetheless, one can study the Fathers’ “spirituality.” The books listed below are limited to studies of spirituality and mysticism; see theBibliographies for Studies of Early Christianity & Patristic Theology for a more complete listing of books on the Church Fathers, their biographies, theological writings, and historical context. Bernard McGinn, The Foundations of Mysticism: Origins to the Fifth Century, Vol. 1 of The Presence of God (New York: Crossroad, 1991). This is the first volume of a major multi-volume history of Christian mysticism. This is especially good on Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, and Pseudo-Dionysius. John Peter Kenney, The Mysticism of Saint Augustine: Rereading the Confessions (New York: Routledge, 2005). An important revisionist interpretation of Augustine's mysticism. Studies of Augustine as mystic have tended to miss the mark largely because of the tendency of modern scholars to impose modern psychological understandings of mysticism onto ancient authors in general and Augustine in particular. Kenney brilliantly avoids such pitfalls and brings his special expertise on Plotinus and Neoplatonist thought to show how unique Augustine's approach was: that for Augustine contemplation was not an end in itself. David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998).

Sebastian Brock, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual Vision of Ephrem the Syrian, Cistercian Studies 124 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publication, 1992).

Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity(New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).

Elizabeth A. Clark, Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999).

Olivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism: Text & Commentary, trans. Theodore Berkeley (New York: New City Press, 1995).

George E. Demacopolous, Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2007).

Augustine Holmes, A Life Pleasing to God: The Spirituality of the Rules of St. Basil, Cistercian Studies 189(Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000).

J. Christopher King, Origen on the Song of Songs as the Spirit of Scripture: The Bridegroom's Perfect Marriage-Song, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Andrew Louth, The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Dennis E. Trout, Paulinus of Nola: Life, Letters, and Poems, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 27 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).

Frederick Van Fleteren, Joseph C. Schnaubelt, Joseph Reino, ed., Augustine: Mystic and Mystagogue, Collectanea Augustiniana (New York: Peter Lang, 1994).

  SPIRITUALITY OF THE CHURCH FATHERS: CLASSIC TEXTS

Augustine, Confessions, trans. Henry Chadwick, Oxford World’s Classics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). The Confessions is Augustine’s long meditation on his life and conversion (Bk. 1-9) on his interior life at the time he is writing (Bk. 10) and on the opening verses of Genesis (Bk. 11-13). One of the masterpieces of Western literature. Another useful translation is by Maria Boulding (New City Press, 1998) paperback, $20.

Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Moses, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Everett Ferguson & Abraham J. Malherbe (New York: Paulist Press, 1978). Gregory was not only one of the architects of Trinitarian doctrine but was also a mystic. Here he allegorizes the Exodus story, treating it as the story of the journey of the soul to God. Whatever one thinks of it as biblical interpretation, it is a brilliant analysis of the mystical journey to God.

Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Rowan A. Greer (New York: Paulist Press, 1979). A fine selection of Origen’s works: it includes On First Principles, Book IV—his classic defense of allegorical interpretation and a summary of his controversial views on Trinity; it also has Origen’s On Prayer, the earliest Christian treatise on prayer—and one of the most influential; while essentially a commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, this work also addresses the problem of why one should pray even though God already knows what we need.

Augustine of Hippo, Selected Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Mary T. Clark (New York: Paulist Press, 1984).

Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Paradise, trans. Sebastian Brock (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990).

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul & the Resurrection, trans. Catherine P. Roth (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993).

Peter Gilbert, trans., On God and Man: The Theological Poetry of St. Gregory of Nazianzus(Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001).

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, trans, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen on the Lord’s Prayer (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004).

Anna Silvas, ed.,The Asketikon of St. Basil the Great, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). A critical edition of Basil's rules.

  THE DESERT FATHERS & EARLY MONASTICISM: STUDIES

William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). 4th-century Christians moved in droves to the deserts of Egypt and, in the famous words of Saint Athanasius, made the desert a city. In so doing, they captured the imagination of the ancient world. They forged techniques of prayer and asceticism, of discipleship and spiritual direction, that have remained central to Christianity ever since. Seeking to map the soul’s long journey to God and plot out the subtle vagaries of the human heart, they created and inspired texts that became classics of Western spirituality. These Desert Christians were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity’s finest. This book introduces the key texts of early monasticism: Athanasius’Life of Antony, the Lives of Pachomius, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, the writings of Evagrius, Palladius, and John Cassian. Along the way, readers are introduced to path-breaking discoveries—to new texts and recent archeological finds—that have revolutionized contemporary scholarship on monastic origins. Included are fascinating snippets from papyri and from little-known Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopic texts. Interspersed in each chapter are illustrations, maps, and diagrams that help readers sort through the key texts and the richly-textured world of early monasticism.

Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Cassian probably did more than anyone else to translate the desert experience for the West. Following his teacher, Evagrius Ponticus, he stressed wordless prayer and the mystical journey of the soul. St. Benedict, in his Rule, would make Cassian’s memoirs required reading in all his monasteries. This is a superb of Cassian’s spirituality.

Hilarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian, Cistercian Studies 175 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2001).

John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: the Monasteries of Palestine, 314-631, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).

Douglas Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Daniel Caner, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 33 (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2002).

Derwas Chitty, The Desert A City (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1966).

Marilyn Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000). A recent survey that charts movements in Late Antiquity and shows how they coalescence in the early Middle Ages.

Susanna Elm, Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Oxford Classical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

James E. Goehring, Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism(Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999).

Graham E. Gould, The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). See especially the superb introductory chapter.

Antoine Guillaumont, Aux origenes du monachisme chrétien: Pour une phénoménologie du monachisme, Spiritualité orientale 30 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1979.

Antoine Guillaumont, “L’enseignement spirituel des moines d’Égypte: La formation d’une tradition,” reprinted in Études sur la spiritualité de l’Orient chrétien, Spiritualité orientale 66 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, France: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1996) 81-92. A brilliant introduction.

William Harmless, “Remembering Poemen Remembering: The Desert Fathers & the Spirituality of Memory,” Church History (2000) 483-518.

William Harmless & Raymond R. Fitzgerald, “The Sapphire Light of the Mind: The Skemmata of Evagrius Ponticus,” Theological Studies 62 (2001) 493-529.

Peter Hatlie, The Monks and Monasteries of Constantinople, ca. 350-850 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

Irénée Hausherr, Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East, CS 116, trans. Anthony P. Gythiel (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1990; original French edition, 1955). 

Irénée Hausherr, Penthos: the Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East, trans. Anselm Hufstader, Cistercian Studies 53 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1982). A classic.

Jennifer L. Hevelone-Harper, Disciples of the Desert: Monks, Laity, and Spiritual Authority in Sixth-Century Gaza(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005). A helpful study of Barsanuphius & John of Gaza, their world and their approach to spiritual direction.

Rebecca Krawiec, Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Harriet A. Luckman & Linda Kulzer, eds., Purity of Heart in Early Ascetic and Monastic Literature(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999).

Philip Rousseau, Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth Century Egypt, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 6 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).

Andrea Sterk, Renouncing the World Yet Leading the Church: The Monk-Bishop in Late Antiquity(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004).

Columba Stewart, “Imageless Prayer and the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 173-204.

Columba Stewart, “The Monastic Journey According to John Cassian,” in Everett Ferguson, Forms of Devotion: Conversion, Worship, Spirituality, and Asceticism (New York: Garland, 1999) 311-322.

Benedicta Ward, “Traditions of Spiritual Guidance: Spiritual Direction in the Desert Fathers,”Signs and Wonders: Saints, Miracles, and Prayers from the 4th Century to the 14th(London: Variorum Reprints, 1992).

  THE DESERT FATHERS & EARLY MONASTICISM: CLASSIC TEXTS

Athanasius, The Life of Anthony and the Letter to Marcellinus, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Robert C. Gregg (New York: Paulist Press, 1980). Athanasius’ Life of Antony was one of the earliest Christian best-sellers and was responsible for popularizing the desert ideal throughout the ancient world; it would go on to shape all later lives of the saints. 

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection [= Apophthegmata Patrum] trans. Benedicta Ward, Cistercian Studies 59 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1984). The Apophthegmata Patrum (“Sayings of the Fathers”) has fascinating anecdotes about and one-liners from the simple, unlearned, and often eccentric leaders of the early desert movement. It has come down to us in two basic forms: the Alphabetical Collection and the Systematic Collection. The Alphabetical gathers the various stories and sayings under the names of prominent monks and arranges these according to the Greek alphabet. It contains some 1,000 sayings or brief narratives, grouped under the names of over 130 “abbas.” See also the Systematic Collection, published under the title: The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, Penguin Classics, trans. Benedicta Ward (London: Penguin Books: 2003). This contains many of the same sayings and stories, but gathers them under themes such as “quiet” or “unceasing prayer.” In the 6th century, an early version of this was translated from Greek into Latin by two Roman clerics, the deacon Pelagius and the subdeacon John (who perhaps became the later Popes Pelagius and John)This version deeply touched the spirituality of Western monasticism. 

Robert E. Sinkewicz, ed., Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). Evagrius was the first great theoretician of the spiritual life. He stressed the centrality of wordless, imageless prayer, and his writings display a fondness for brief, oracular sayings. Within a year of his death, his friends and disciples—Palladius, Cassian, Rufinus—were persecuted as “Origenists” and run out of Egypt. Evagrius was condemned 150 years later, and his works circulated under others’ names. This edition offers the first attempt by a single translator to make the bulk of Evagrius’ writings available to the English-speaking public.

Dorotheus of Gaza, Discourses and Sayings, trans., Eric P. Wheeler, Cistercian Studies 33 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987).

John Cassian, The Conferences, trans. Boniface Ramsey, Ancient Christian Writers 57 (New York: Paulist Press, 1997).

John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1982).

John Mochus, The Spiritual Meadow, trans. John Wortley, Cistercian Studies (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1992).

Theodoret of Cyrrhus, A History of the Monks of Syria, trans. R.M. Price, Cistercian Studies 88 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1985).

John Chryssavgis, trans., Letters from the Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003). A selection of the letters of the 6th-century Palestinian monks Barsanuphius and John of Gaza.

John Chryssavgis & Pachomios Penkett, trans., Abba Isaiah of Scetis: Ascetic Discourses, Cistercian Studies 150(Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2002).

Augustine Casiday, Evagrius Ponticus, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2006).

Robert Doran, ed., The Lives of Symeon Stylites, Cistercian Studies 112 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992).

Armand Veilleux, ed., Pachomian Koinonia: the Lives, Rules, and Other Writings of Saint Pachomius, Cistercian Studies 45-47 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1980-1982).

Vincent L. Wimbush, ed., Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990). Translations of valuable, but hard-to-find sources.

BYZANTINE SPIRITUALITY: STUDIES

Andrew Louth, Denys the Areopagite, Outstanding Christian Thinkers Series (reprint: New York: Continuum, 2002). Denys the Areopagite (also called Pseudo-Dionysius) was a 6th-century Greek-speaking Syrian monk writing under the pseudonym of St. Paul’s Athenian convert. He composed a set of treatises that powerfully shaped mystical currents both in the Greek East and the medieval West; they even influenced the development of the Gothic cathedral. Louth offers a valuable introduction. 

Roman Cholij, Theodore the Stoudite: The Ordering of Holiness (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Adam G. Cooper, The Body in St. Maximus the Confessor: Holy Flesh, Wholly Deified , Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (reprint of 1953 edition: Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997).

Andrew Louth, St. John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology, Oxford Early Christian Studies(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes, 2nd ed. (New York: Fordham University Press, 1987).

Marcus Plested, The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Tomas Spidlik, The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook, Cistercian Studies 79 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1986).

Tomas Spidlik, Prayer: The Spirituality of the Christian East, Vol. 2 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 2005).

Columba Stewart, “Working the Earth of the Heart”: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to A.D. 431, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

Torstein Tollefsen, The Christocentric Cosmology of St. Maximus the Confessor, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008).

BYZANTINE SPIRITUALITY: CLASSIC TEXTS

Andrew Louth, Maximus the Confessor, Early Christian Fathers Series (London: Routledge, 1996. Maximus was a 7th-century Byzantine monk and a brilliant theologian who was brutally tortured because of his devotion to Chalcedonian christology. He lived in exile in the Latin West and became one of the last to bridge the gap between East and West. This is a good study of his life and work and includes a valuable selection of his works. 

The Pilgrim’s Tale: Russian Spiritual Literature, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Aleksei Pentkovsky, (New York: Paulist Press, 2000). This classic of Russian Orthodox spirituality, popularized some years ago in J.D. Salinger’s Franny and Zooey, brings alive the experience of praying the Jesus prayer. The Jesus prayer is the Eastern Christian tradition of ceaselessly repeating the name of Jesus, usually with a phrase such as “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This popular piety, similar to—yet simpler than—the rosary, flows from a concern to fulfill the Pauline admonition: “Pray without ceasing.” 

Gregory Palamas, The Triads, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Nicholas Grendle (New York: Paulist Press, 1983).

Maximus Confessor, Selected Writings, trans. George C. Berthold, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1985).

Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1989).

Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain & Makarios of Corinth, Philokalia: The Complete Text, 4 vol., trans. G.E.H. Palmer & Kallistos Ware (Faber & Faber, 1988-1995).

Nils Sorsky, The Complete Writings, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. George Maloney (New York: Paulist Press, 2003).

Pseudo-Dionysius, The Complete Works, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Colm Luibheid (New York: Paulist Press, 1987).

Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, trans. George A. Maloney, Classics of Western Spirituality 75 (New York: Paulist Press, 1992).

Symeon the New Theologian, Discourses, Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. C.J. DeCatanzaro (New York: Paulist Press, 1980).

Paul M. Blowers & Robert L. Wilken, St. Maximus the Confessor: On the Cosmic Mystery of Jesus Christ, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003).

Brian E. Colless, trans. and ed., The Wisdom of the Pearlers: An Anthology of Syriac Christian Mysticism, Cistercian Studies 216 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications / Collegeville, MN: Litrugicacl Press, 2008).

Andrew Louth, trans., St. John of Damascus, Three Treatises on the Divine Images, Popular Patristics Series(Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003).

CHRISTIANITY IN EGYPT

Christopher Haas, Alexandria in Late Antiquity: Topography and Social Conflict (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1997 / paperback, 2006). Much of the story of early Christianity takes place in Alexandria, among both its educated elite and its rowdy crowds. Many leading theologians—Clement, Origen, Arius, Athanasius, Didymus, Cyril—called Alexandria home. This brilliant study brings alive the city—its layout, its leading monuments, its local politics. Haas particularly focuses on religious dynamics and conflicts among pagans, Jews, and Christians.

Roger S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). An excellent study of the social world of Egypt, drawing mostly on evidence from recently discovered papyri.

Roger Bagnall, Early Christian Books in Egypt (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009).

Alan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs, 332 BC-AD 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986). A valuable overview.

David Brakke, "The East (2): Egypt and Palestine," in Susan Ashbrook Harvey & David G. Hunter,The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 344-363.

David Frankfurter, ed., Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).

David Frankfurter, ed., Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 1999).

James E. Goehring and Janet Timbie, eds., The World of Early Egyptian Christianity: Language, Literature, and Social Context, CUA Studies in Early Christianity (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

Jill Kamil, Christianity in the Land of the Pharaohs: The Coptic Orthodox Church (New York: Routledge, 2002).

Birger A. Pearson & James E. Goehring, eds., The Roots of Egyptian Christianity, Studies in Antiquity & Christianity(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1986).

C.H. Roberts, Manuscript, Society and Belief in Early Christian Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977).

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: TEXTS, TRANSLATIONS & STUDIES

Clement of Alexandria (d. ca. 215) was a leading early Christian teacher whose writings offer a remarkable glimpse into the sophisticated intellectual milieu of 2nd/3rd century Alexandria. Clement sought to weld the best of Greek culture with Christian mores.

Texts

A critical edition of the Greek text of Clement's complete works is found in O. Stählin, L. Früchtel, and U. Treu, eds., Clemens Alexandrinus, 4 vols., Griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller (GCS) (Leipzig : J.C. Hinrichs, 1905-1939). More recent editions are:

Protrepticus (Exhortation) M. Marcovich, ed., Clementis Alexandrini Protrepticus, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 34 (Leiden: Brill, 1995). Also: Claude Mondésert and A. Plassart, eds.,Clément d'Alexandrie: Protrepticus, 2nd ed., Sources chrétiennes 2 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1949).

Paedagogus (The Teacher) M. Marcovich and J.C.M. van Winden, eds., Clementis Alexandrini Paedagogus, Supplements to Vigiliae 61 (Leiden: Brill, 2002). Also: Henri-Irenee Marrou and M. Harls, eds., Clément d'Alexandrie: Le pédagogue, Sources chrétiennes 70, 108, 158 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1960-1972).

Stromata (Miscellanies) Claude Mondésert et al., Clément d'Alexandrie: Les Stromates, 6 vols. to date, Sources Chrétiennes 30, 38, 278–279, 428, 446, 463 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1951–2001).

Translations

G.W. Butterworth, ed., The Exhortation to the Greeks, The Rich Man’s Salvation, To the Newly Baptized, Loeb Classical Library (1919; repr. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1968).

A. C. Coxe, trans., “Exhortation to the Heathen,” “The Instructor,” “The Stromata, or Miscellanies,” and “Fragments,” in Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 2 (1885; repr. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1995), 163-605.

J. Ferguson, ed., Stromateis 1-3, Fathers of the Church 85 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1991).

S.P. Woods, ed., Christ the Educator, Fathers of the Church 23 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1954).

Studies:

Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski, Clement of Alexandria: A Project of Christian Perfection (New York: T&T Clark, 2008).

John Behr, Asceticism and Anthropology in Irenaeus and Clement, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Bogdan Gabriel Bucur, Angelomorphic Pneumatology: Clement of Alexandria and Other Early Christian Witnesses, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 95 (Boston / Leiden: Brill, 2009).

Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition: Studies in Justin, Clement, and Origen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966).

A. Choufrine, Gnosis, Theophany, Theosis: Studies in Clement of Alexandria’s Appropriation of His Background(Patristic Studies 5; New York: Peter Lang, 2002).

Henry Fiska Hägg, Clement of Alexandria and the Beginnings of Christian Apophaticism, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

A. van den Hoek, Clement of Alexandria and His Use of Philo in the Stromateis: An Early Christian Reshaping of a Jewish Model, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 3 (Leiden: Brill, 1988).

Andrew C. Itter, Esoteric Teaching in the Stromateis of Clement of Alexandria, Supplement to the Vigiliae Christianae 97 (Boston / Leiden: Brill, 2009).

J.L. Kovacs, "Divine Pedagogy and the Gnostic Teacher according to Clement of Alexandria,"Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001): 3-25.

P. Karavites, Evil, Freedom, and the Road to Perfection in Clement of Alexandria, Supplements to Vigilae Christianae 43 (Leiden: Brill, 1999).

S. R. C. Lilla, Clement of Alexandria: A Study in Christian Platonism and Gnosticism, Oxford Theological Monographs (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).

Eric Osborn, Clement of Alexandria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

ORIGEN: TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

Texts: Origen (d. 254) was one of the most prolific writers of the ancient world. He was, above all else, a biblical scholar and so most of his major works are biblical commentaries and homilies. Only a small portion of his immense corpus survives. A version of his complete works is reproduced in J. Migne, PG 11-17. For critical editions, see the following volumes in the Sources chretiennes and Origenes Werke series:

Commentarius in Canticum canticorum (Commentary on the Song of Songs): L. Brésard, H. Crouzel, and M. Borret, eds., Origène: Commentaire sur le Cantique des cantiques, Sources chrétiennes 375-376 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1991-1992).

Commentarii in evangelium Johannis (Commentary on the Gospel of John): C. Blanc, ed., Origène: Commentaire sur saint Jean, 5 vols., Sources chrétiennes 120, 157, 222, 290, 385 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1964-1992). See also vol. 4 of Origenes Werke, GCS 10 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1903).

Commentarium in evangelium Matthaei (Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew): R. Girod, ed.,Origène: Commentaire sur l’Évangile selon Matthieu, Sources chrétiennes 162 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1970), vol. 1 [X-XI]. See also Vols. 10, 11, and 12.1–2 of Origenes Werke, GCS 38, 40, 41 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1935–1955; vol. 3 revised, 1968).

Commentarii in Lamentationes, Samuelem, Regna (Commenataries on Lamentations, Samuel, and Kings): E. Klostermann, ed., Jeremiahomilien; Klageliederkommentar; Erklärung der Samuel- und Königsbücher, vol. 3 of Origenes Werke, GCS (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901).

Commentarii in Romanos (Commentary on Romans): Michel Fédou and Luc Brésard, Origène:Commentaire sur l'Épître aux Romains (Livres III-V) Sources chrétiennes 532, 539 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2009-2010). Also: P. Hammond Bammel, ed., Der Römerbriefkommentar des Origenes: Kritisch Ausgabe der Übersetzung Rufins, vol. 16, 33, 34 (Fribourg: Herder, 1990-1998).

Contra Celsum (Against Celsus): Marcel Borret, ed. Origène: Contre Celse, Sources chrétiennes 132 (Books 1-2), 136 (Books 3-4), 147 (Books 5-6), 150 (Books 7-8) (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1967-1969)

De pascha (On the Passover): O. Guéraud and P. Nautin, eds., Origène: Sur la Pâque: Traité inédit publié d’après un papyrus de Toura (Paris: Beauchesne, 1979).

De principiis (On First Principles): Henri Crouzel and Manlio Simonetti, eds., Origène: Traité des principles, 5 vols., Sources chrétiennes 252 (Books 1-2), 253 (Commentaries and fragments of Books 1-2), 268 (Books 3-4), 269 (Commentary on and fragments from Books 3-4), 312 (index) (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1978-1984). See also Vol. 5 of Origenes Werke, GCS 22 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1913).

Disputatio cum Heracleida (Disputation with Heraclides): J. Scherer, ed., Origène: Entretien d'Origène avec Héraclide, Sources chrétiennes 67 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1960).

Epistula ad Gregorium Thaumaturgum (Letter to Gregory Thaumaturgos): Henri Crouzel, ed.,Remerciement à Origène, suivi de la lettre d’Origène à Grégoire, Sources chrétiennes 148 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1969).

Exhortatio ad martyrium, Contra Celsum, De oratione: P. Koetschau, ed., vols. 1–2 of Origenes Werke, 12 vols. in 13, GCS Or 2–3 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1899–1955).

Fragments of Ps 118 M. Harl, ed., La chaîne palestinienne sur le psaume 118, (Origène, Eusèbe, Didyme, Apollinaire, Athanase, Théodoret), 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 189–190 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1972).

Hexapla F. Field, ed., Origenis Hexaplorum quae supersunt, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1867–1871).

Homiliae in Canticum canticorum (Homilies on the Song of Songs): O. Rousseau, ed., Origène: Homélies sur le Cantique des cantiques, Sources chrétiennes 37 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1954). See also vol. 8 of Origenes Werke, GCS 33 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1925).

Homiliae et Commentarii in Lucam (Homilies and Commentary on Luke): H. Crouzel, F. Fournier, and P. Périchon, eds., Origène: Homélies Luc: Texte latin et fragments grecs, Sources chrétiennes 87 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1962). See also Vol. 9 of Origenes Werke, GCS 49 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1930).

Homiliae in Exodum (Homilies on Exodus): M. Borret, ed., Origène: Homélies sur l’Exode, Sources chrétiennes 321 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1985).

Homiliae in Ezechielem (Homilies on Ezekiel): M. Borret, ed., Origène: Homélies sur Ézéchiel, Sources chrétiennes 352 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1989).

Homiliae in Genesim (Homilies on Genesis): H. de Lubac and L. Doutreleau, eds., Origène: Homélies sur la Genèse, 2nd ed., Sources chrétiennes 7 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1976).

Homiliae in Hexateuchum (Homilies on the Hexateuch): W. A. Baehrens, ed., Homilien zum Hexateuch in Rufins Übersetzung, vols 6-7 of Origenes Werke, GCS 29-30 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1920-1921).

Homiliae in Jeremiam (Homilies on Jeremiah): P. Husson and P. Nautin, eds., Origène: Homélies sur Jérémie, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 232, 238 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1976-1977).See also Vol. 3 of Origenes Werke, GCS (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1901).

Homiliae in Jesu Nave (Homilies on Joshua): A. Jaubert, ed., Origène: Homélies sur Josué, Sources chrétiennes 71 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1960).

Homiliae in Judices (Homilies on Judges): P. Messié, L. Neyrand, and M. Borret, eds., Origène: Homélies sur les Juges, Sources chrétiennes 389 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1993).

Homiliae in Leviticum (Homilies on Leviticus): M. Borret, ed., Origène: Homélies sur le Lévitique, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 286–287 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1981).

Homiliae in Numeros (Homilies on Numbers): L. Doutreleau, ed., Origène: Homélies sur les Nombres, Sources chrétiennes 415, 442, 461 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1996–2001) [I–XXVIII].

Homiliae in Psalmos (Homilies on Psalms): E. Prinzivalli, H. Crouzel, and L. Brésard, eds.,Origène: Homélies sur les psaumes 36 à 38, Sources chrétiennes 411 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1995).

Homiliae in Samuelem (Homilies on Samuel): P. Nautin and M.-T. Nautin, eds., Origène: Homélies sur Samuel, Sources chrétiennes 328 (Paris, Éditions du Cerf, 1986). See also Vol. 8 of Origenes Werke, GCS 33 (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1925).

Philocalia (Philokalia): M. Harl and N. de Lange, eds., Origène: Sur les Écritures: Philocalie, 1–20 et la lettre à Africanus sur l’histoire de Suzanne, Sources chrétiennes 302 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1983). É. Junod, ed., Origène: Sur le libre arbitre: Philocalie 21–27, Sources chrétiennes 226 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1976).

Translations:

Origen, Exhortation to Martyrdom, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Rowan A. Greer (New York: Paulist Press, 1979). A fine selection of Origen’s works. It includes On First Principles, Book IV (his classic defense of allegorical interpretation and a summary of his controversial views on Trinity). It also has his treatise On Prayer, the earliest Christian treatise on prayer—and one of the most influential; while essentially a commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, this work also addresses the problem of why one should pray even though God already knows what we need.

Origen, Contra Celsum, trans. Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980). Celsus was one of the most astute of Christianity’s ancient opponents, and around 180, wrote a devastating critique entitled On True Doctrine. In it he displayed both his philosophical sophistication and his knack for satire. In the 240s, Origen took Celsus on, rebutting his arguments point-by-point. In the process, Origen produced perhaps the greatest apology for Christianity, both its doctrines and its way of life. Only Augustine’s City of God can match its brilliance.

Origen, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, Fathers of the Church 103-104, trans. Thomas P. Scheck (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2001-2002).

Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John, trans. Ronald E. Heine, Fathers of the Church 80, 89 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1989 & 1993).

Origen, Homilies 1-14 on Ezekiel, Ancient Christian Writers 62, trans. Thomas P. Scheck (New York: Paulist Press, 2010) hardcover, $32. NEW.

Origen, Homilies on Genesis and Exodus, trans. Ronald E. Heine, Fathers of the Church 71 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1982).

Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah, trans. John Clark Smith, Fathers of the Church 97 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1998).

Origen, Homilies on Joshua, trans. Barbara J. Brucel, Fathers of the Church 105 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2002).

Origen, Homilies on Judges, trans. Elizabeth Ann Dively Lauro, Fathers of the Church 119 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010).

Origen, Homilies on Luke, trans. Joseph T. Lienhard, Fathers of the Church 94 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1996).

Origen, Homilies on Numbers, trans. Thomas P. Scheck, Ancient Christian Texts (Downers' Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2009). 

Origen, Homilies on the Song of Songs, trans. R.P. Lawson, Ancient Christian Writers 26 (Westminster, MD: New Press, 1957).

Origen, On First Principles [Peri Archon] trans. G.W. Butterworth (1966; reprint: Peter Firth, 1990).

Origen, Treatise on the Passover and Dialogue with Heraclides, trans. Robert J. Daly, Ancient Christian Writers 51 (New York: Paulist Press, 1992).

Ronald Heine, ed., The Commentaries of Origen and Jerome on St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Thomas P. Scheck, trans., St. Pamphilus: Apology for Origen / Rufinus: On the Falsification of the Books of Origen, Fathers of the Church 120 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010), hardcover, $30. NEW.

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen: On the Lord’s Prayer, Popular Patristic Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004).

ORIGEN: STUDIES

Joseph W. Trigg, Origen, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 1998). Origen was both a brilliant biblical scholar and an adventurous theologian—and he shaped the course of Christian theology as profoundly as Augustine and Aquinas. Like other volumes in this series, this includes both an overview of Origen’s life and doctrine as well as a selection of his writings.

Hans Urs von Balthasar, Parole et mystère chez Origène (Paris: Cerf, 1957).

Henri Crouzel, Origen, trans. A.S. Worrall (1989: reprint: Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1998). For many years, Crouzel was the greatest living authority on Origen. The most thorough overview of Origen’s theology.

Elizabeth A. Clark, The Origenist Controversy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). An essential study of the dispute over Origen that took place 150 years after his death.

Brian E. Daley, “Origen’s ‘De principiis’: A Guide to the ‘Principles’ of Christian Scriptural Interpretation,” in John F. Petruccione, ed., Nova et Vetera: Patristic Studies in Honor of Thomas Patrick Halton (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1998).

Mark J. Edwards, Origen against Plato, Ashgate Studies in Philosophy & Theology in Late Antiquity (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002)

Anthony Grafton and Megan Williams, Christianity and the Transformation of the Book: Origen, Eusebius, and the Library of Caesarea (Cambridge, MA: Belknap / Harvard University Press, 2006).

R.P.C. Hanson, Allegory and Event: A Study of the Sources and Significance of Origen’s Interpretation of Scripture, ed. Joseph W. Trigg (reprint of 1959 edition: Nashville: Westminster John Knox, 2003).

Ronald Heine, Origen: Scholarship in the Service of the Church, Christian Theology in Context (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) paperback, $30. NEW.

Charles Kannengiesser & William L. Petersen, eds., Origen of Alexandria: His World and Legacy(Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988).

J. Christopher King, Origen on the Song of Songs as the Spirit of Scripture: The Bridegroom’s Perfect Marriage-Song, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Richard A. Layton, “Recovering Origen’s Pauline Exegesis: Exegesis and Eschatology in the Commentary on Ephesians,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (2000): 373-411.

F. Ledegang, Mysterium Ecclesiae: Images of the Church and Its Members in Origen (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2001).

Rebecca Lyman, Christology and Cosmology: Models of Divine Activity in Origen, Eusebius, and Athanasius, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Clement of Alexandria

Ferguson, John, ed., Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 85The Fathers of the Church,Washington, D. C.: CUAP, 1991.

Lilla, S. Clement of Alexandria: A Study in Christian Platonism and GnosticismOxford: OUP, 1971.

John A. McGuckin, The Westminister Handbook to Origen (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004).

Fred Norris, “Origen,” in The Early Christian World, ed. P. F. Esler (New York: Routledge, 2000) 2:1005-1026.

Lloyd G. Patterson, Methodius of Olympus: Divine Sovereignty, Human Freedom, and Life in Christ(Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1997).

L. Perrone, “Prayer in Origen’s Contra Celsum: The Knowledge of God and the Truth of Christianity,” Vigiliae Christianae 55 (2001): 1-19.

Thomas P. Scheck, Origen and the History of Justification: The Legacy of Origen’s Commentary on Romans (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2008).

K.A.D. Smelik, “The Witch of Endor: 1 Samuel 28 in Rabbinic and Christian Exegesis till 800 A.D.,”Vigiliae Christianae 33 (1977): 160-179.

K. Torjesen, Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Method in Origen’s Exegesis, PTS 28 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1985)

Joseph W. Trigg, Origen: Bible and Philosophy in the 3rd Century (Atlanta: John Knox, 1983). A superb survey.

P. Tzamalikos, Origen: Cosmology and Ontology of Time, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 77 (Leiden: Brill, 2006)

Peter Widdicombe, The Fatherhood of God from Origen to Athanasius, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Every four years, leading scholars of Origen gather for an international conference on various aspect of his life, writings, and influence. The conference proceedings contain valuable research, but are intended for more advanced students of Origen:

Origeniana: Premier colloque international des études origéniennes (1975) eds. Henri Crouzel, Gennaro Lomiento, Joseph Rius-Camps (Bari: Università Istituto di Letteratura Christiana Antica, 1975).

Origeniana Secunda: Second Colloque international des études origéniennes (Bari, 20-23 septembre 1977), eds. Henri Crouzel and Antonio Quacquarelli (Rome: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1980).

Origeniana Tertia: The Third International Colloquium for Origen Studies, University of Manchester, September 7th-11th, 1981, eds. Richard Hanson and Henri Crouzel (Rome: Edizioni dell’Ateneo, 1985).

Origeniana Quinta: Papers of the 5th International Origen Congress, Boston College, August, 1989, ed. Robert J. Daly (Leuven: Peeters, 1992).

Origeniana Septima: Origenes in den Auseinandersetzungen des 4. Jahrhunderts, eds. W.A. Bienart & U. Kühneweg (Leuven: Peeters, 1999).

Origeniana Octava: Origen and the Alexandrian Tradition: Papers of the 8th International Origen Congress, Pisa, 27-31 August 2001, ed. L. Perrone, P. Bernardino, D. Marchini (Leuven: Leuven University Press; Peeters, 2004).

Origeniana Nova: Origen and the Religious Practice of His Time, eds. G. Heidel and R. Somos, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Loveniensium 228 (Leuven: Peeters, 2009), hardcover, €93. NEW. 

Origeniana Decima: Origen as Writer, eds. S. Kaczmarek and H. Pietras, Bibliotheca Ephemeridum Theologicarum Lovaniensium 244 (Leuven: Peeters, forthcoming in 2011).

CHRISTOLOGY IN THE EARLY CHURCH: SURVEYS & INTRODUCTIONS

Brian E. Daley, “Christ and Christologies,” pp. 886-905, in Susan Ashbrook Harvey & David G. Hunter, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). A valuable brief overview. The opening paragraphs eloquently state the issues at stake.

Brian E. Daley, “Nature and the ‘Mode of Union’: Late Patristic Models for the Personal Unity of Christ,” pp. 164-196, in Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall & Gerald O’Collins, The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002) hardcover.

Donald Fairbairn, Grace and Christology in the Early Church, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Paul L. Gavrilyuk, The Sufferings of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). Excellent debunking of the widespread view that "impassibility" is an import from Greek philosophy and contradicts the Biblical conception of God.

Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in the Christian Tradition, Vol. 1: From the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon, rev. ed., trans. John Bowden (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1975). A classic study.

J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 5th edition (reprint: New York: Continuum, 2000).

John Meyendorff, Christ in Eastern Christian Thought (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1987). Valuable on Christology after Chalcedon.

Norman Russell, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Basil Studer, Trinity and Incarnation: The Fathers of the Early Church (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1994).

Frances Young (with Andrew Teale), From Nicaea to Chalcedon, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010). NEW edition.

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: TEXTS & STUDIES

Wendy Mayer & Pauline Allen, John Chrysostom, Early Church Fathers Series (New York: Routledge, 2000). John Chrysostom was the most eloquent preacher of the early church, but as Patriarch of Constantinople, he found himself ill-equipped to deal with the intricate and deadly politics of the imperial capital. This is a good introduction to his life and writings.

J.N.D. Kelly, Golden Mouth: the Story of John Chrysostom (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995). The first book-length biography of Chrysostom in 50 years. Superb.

Jaclyn Maxwell, Christianization and Communication in Late Antiquity: John Chrysostom and His Congregation in Antioch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Wendy Mayer, trans., St. John Chrysostom: The Cult of the Saints, Popular Patristics series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2006).

Robert L. Wilken, John Chrysostom and the Jews: Rhetoric and Reality in the Late Fourth Century, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 4 (1983; reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2004).

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: TEXTS & STUDIES

Frederick G. McLeod, ed., Theodore of Mopsuestia, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2009). Theodore was a friend of John Chrysostom who spent much of his career as a presbyter in Antioch, but towards the end of his life became bishop of Mopsuestia. He pioneered the strong Antiochene emphasis on the full humanity of Jesus. His reputation was posthumously tarnished by association with Nestorius, and many of his works were lost in the original Greek but preserved in Syriac. The 20th century saw the recovery of his works and new appreciation of his achievements (and limits).

Robert C. Hill, trans., Theodore of Mopsuestia: Commentary on the Twelve Prophets, Fathers of the Church 108(Washington: Catholic University Press, 2004).

John Behr, John, ed. and trans., The Case Against Diodore and Theodore, Oxford Early Christian Texts (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) hardcover, $265. NEW. A collection of the texts that led to Diodore's and Theodore's condemnation by the Council of Constantinople II.

Frederick G. McLeod, The Roles of Christ’s Humanity in Salvation: Insights from Theodore of Mopsuestia(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2005).

Frederick G. McLeod, The Image of God in the Antiochene Tradition (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1999).

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, NESTORIUS & THE COUNCIL OF EPHESUS

John A. McGuckin, St. Cyril of Alexandria: the Christological Controversy: Its History, Theology and Texts(Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004). A fine introduction to the disputes on the unity of the person of Christ that took place before and during the momentous Council of Ephesus. McGuckins includes in his appendix a valuable collection of the key documents.

Norman Russell, Cyril of Alexandria, Early Church Fathers Series (New York: Routledge, 2000) Cyril, a brilliant theologian and an unscrupulous politician, was the great opponent of Nestorius and engineered his downfall at the Council of Ephesus. This new volume provides a valuable introduction and selection of texts.

G.R. Driver & Leonard Hodgson, ed., Nestorius: The Bazaar of Heraclides (reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock). An old translation of the Syriac version of Nestorius' final treatise, now back in print.

Joseph A. Hallman, “The Seed of Fire: Divine Suffering in the Christology of Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius of Constantinople,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 5 (1997) 369-391; reprinted in Everett Ferguson, ed., Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties of Early Christianity, Recent Studies in Early Christianity 4 (New York: Garland, 1999) 71-94.

Daniel A. Keating, The Appropriation of Divine Life in Cyril of Alexandria, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Steven A. McKinion, Words, Imagery, and the Mystery of Christ: A Reconstruction of Cyril of Alexandria’s Christology(Leiden: Brill, 2000).

John A. McGuckin, trans, St. Cyril of Alexandria: On the Unity of Christ (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995). Includes an excellent introduction.

Bernard Meunier, Le Christ de Cyrille d’Alexandre: L’humanité, le salut, et la question monophysite, Théologie historique 104 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1997).

John J. O'Keefe and Philip Amidon, ed. and trans., St. Cyril of Alexandria: Festal Letters, 1-10, Fathers of the Church(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2009)

John J. O’Keefe, “‘A Letter That Killeth’: Towards a Reassessment of Antiochene Exegesis, or Diodore, Theodore, and Theodoret on the Psalms,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 8 (2000): 83-104.

John J. O’Keefe, “Impassible Suffering? Divine Passion and Fifth-Century Christology,”Theological Studies 58(1997): 39-60.

Norman Russell, Theophilus of Alexandria, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2007) Theophilus was Cyril's controversial predecessor.

Hans Van Loon, The Dyophysite Christology of Cyril of Alexandria, Supplements to Vigilae Christianae (Boston / Leiden: Brill, 2009).

Thomas G. Weinandy & Daniel Keating, eds., The Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: A Critical Appreciation(Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 2003).

Susan Wessel, Cyril of Alexandria and the Nestorian Controversy: The Making of a Saint and of a Heretic, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Lionel R. Wickham, ed., Cyril of Alexandria: Selected Letters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983) Excellent translations with the facing Greek text.

Robert L. Wilken, Judaism and the Early Christian Mind: A Study of Cyril of Alexandria's Exegesis and Theology(1971; reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2004).

LEO, THEODORET OF CYRUS & THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON

Paul B. Clayton, The Christology of Theodoret of Cyrus: Antiochene Christology from the Council of Ephesus (431) to the Council of Chalcedon (451), Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York / Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Bernard Green, Soteriology of Leo the Great, Oxford Theological Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of the Monophysite Movement: Chapters in the History of the Church in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972).

Robert C. Hill, trans., Theodoret of Cyrus: Commentary on the Psalms 1-72, Fathers of the Church 101 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2000).

Robert C. Hill, trans. and ed., Theodoret of Cyrus: The Questions on the Octateuch, Vol. 1:On Genesis and Exodus, Library of Early Christianity 1 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

Robert C. Hill, trans. and ed., Theodoret of Cyrus: The Questions on the Octateuch, Vol. 2:On Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, Library of Early Christianity 2 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

Bronwen Neil, ed. and trans., Leo the Great, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2009).

István Pásztori-Kupán, Theodoret of Cyrus, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2006).

Richard Price, ed., Chalcedon in Context: Church Councils, 400-700, Translated Texts for Historians, Contexts (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009) NEW in paperback, $35. Excellent collection of essays.

Richard Price & Michael Gaddis, trans., Acts of the Council of Chalcedon, 3 vol., Translated Texts for Historians(Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007). The first complete translation of the Acts of Chalcedon. It offers valuable insights into the dynamic of the Council.

Richard Price, ed. and trans., The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553 [With Related Texts on the Three Chapters Controversy], Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2009).

Susan Wessel, Leo the Great and the Spiritual Rebuilding of a Universal Rome, Supplement to Vigilae Christianae(Boston / Leiden: Brill, 2008).

CONSTANTINE & THE CHRISTIANIZATION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Texts & Translations:

Eusebius [of Caesarea], The Life of Constantine, eds., Averil Cameron & Stuart Hall, Clarendon Ancient History Series (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Eusebius of Caesarea, The Proof of the Gospel, ed. W.J. Ferrar (reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock). An older translation, now back in print.

Lactantius, Divine Institutes, Translated Texts for Historians, trans. Anthony Bowen & Peter Garnsey (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2003).

Studies:

H.D. Drake, Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance, Ancient Society and History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2000). It was Constantine who ended the persecutions and opened the path for the flowering of Christianity in the 4th century. He was a complex character, brutal at times, often misunderstood. This offers an important revisionist reading of Constantine’s underlying political considerations.

Noel Lenski, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). A helpful set of essays that surveys the time and issues surrounding the controversial figure of Constantine. Probably the best place to start.

Timothy D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).

Peter Brown, Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Peter Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992).

Peter Brown, “Christianisation and Religious Conflict,” in Averil Cameron & Peter Garnsey, eds.,The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425, Vol. 13 of The Cambridge Ancient History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) pp. 632-664.

Averil Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: the Development of Christian Discourse(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991).

John R. Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century, Oxford Classical Monograph (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, The Making of a Christian Empire: Lactantius and Rome (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).

T.G. Elliott, The Christianity of Constantine the Great (Scranton: University of Scranton Press, 1997).

Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993).

Martin Goodman, Mission and Conversion: Proselytizing in the Religious History of the Roman Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

R. Ross Holloway, Constantine and Rome (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004).

Aaron P. Johnson, Ethnicity and Argument in Eusebius’ Praeparatio Evangelica, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

A.M.H. Jones, Constantine and the Conversion of Europe, Medieval Academy Reprints for Teaching 4 (Toronto: University of Toronto, 1978).

D.G. Kousoulas, The Life and Times of Constantine the Great: The First Christian Emperor, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2003).

Ramsay Macmullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984).

Doron Mendels, The Media Revolution of Early Christianity: An Essay on Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999).

Arnaldo Momigliano, ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century) Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963). Classic essays.

A.D. Nock, Conversion: the Old and the New in Religion from Alexander the Great to Augustine of Hippo (reprint: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). A classic study.

Charles M. Odahl, Constantine and the Christian Empire, Roman Imperial Biographies (New York: Routledge, 2004).

Claudia Rapp, Holy Bishops in Late Antiquity: The Nature of Christian Leadership in an Age of Transition, Transformation of the Classical Heritage (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).

Michele Renee Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).

Jeremy M. Schott, Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008).

Raymond Van Dam, The Roman Revolution of Constantine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

THE "ARIAN" CONTROVERSY

R.P.C. Hanson, The Search for the Christian Doctrine of God: the Arian Controversy, 318-381 AD(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1988; reprint, 2000). The fourth century saw one of the most momentous battles in the history of Christian theology: a debate over Christ's divinity, whether or not he is "true God", and if so, then how Christians can legitimately claim to be monotheists. The one who sparked the debate was Arius of Alexandria (d. 338), whose views were formally condemned by the Council of Nicaea in 325. The debate continued for decades and has often been referred to as the "Arian controversy." As Hanson demonstrates, the debate on the far side of Nicaea was quite different, and those theologians traditionally labelled as "Arians", in fact, had little to do with Arius or his views. This book is a massive 900-page study of Nicaea, Athanasius, & the Cappadocians and is the finest and the most exhaustive treatment of the theology of the Trinitarian controversy.

Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). A very important revisionist interpretation of the development of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ and of the Trinity. Not easy reading, and Ayres presumes you know the basics of that development, but an essential text. This needs to be read against Hanson's work, which Ayres both builds on and challenges on numerous points.

Franz Dünzl, A Brief History of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Early Church (London: T&T Clark, 2007). The history of this debate is complicated, to say the least, and the work of Hanson, Ayres, and others has significantly rewritten the old textbook accounts. This new work is a very helpful introduction and a straightforward overview of the history, the figures, and the issues. It carefully incorporates new perspectives and can help newcomers transition to more complex treatments such as those of Hanson, Ayres, and Williams.

Philip R. Amidon, trans. and ed., Philostorgius: Church History, Writings from the Greco-Roman World (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007). Philostorgius was an "Arian" historian. This new translation of Philostorgius' late 4th-century account offers an intriguing glimpse into seeing the events from the point of view of those who lost the debate.

Khaled Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine(Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011). NEW.

Michel René Barnes & Daniel H. Williams, ed., Arianism After Arius: Essays on the Development of the Fourth-Century Trinitarian Conflicts (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1993).

John Behr, The Nicene Faith, Vol. 2 of Formation of Christian Theology (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004). Part 1, The Nicene Faith: True God of True God, focuses on Arius, the Council of Nicaea, and Athanasius, while Part 2, The Nicene Faith: One of the Holy Trinity, focuses on the Cappadocians.

Robert C. Gregg & Dennis Groh, Early Arianism: a View of Salvation (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1981). Path-breaking perspectives on Arius; controversial.

Robert C. Gregg, ed., Arianism: Historical and Theological Reassessments, Patristic Monograph Series 11 (1985; reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007). A classic collection of essays now back in print.

David M. Gwynn, The Eusebians: The Polemic of Athanasius of Alexandria and the Construction of the 'Arian Controversy', Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Hamilton Hess, The Early Development of Canon Law and the Council of Serdica (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Creeds, 3rd ed. (1989; reprint: London: Longman, 1989).

Thomas Kopecek, History of Neo-Arianism, 2 vol., Patristic Monograph Series (Cambridge, MA: Philadelphia Patristic Society, 1979).

Joseph T. Lienhard, Contra Marcellum: Marcellus of Ancyra and Fourth-Century Theology(Washington: Catholic University Press, 1999).

Joseph T. Lienhard, “The ‘Arian’ Controversy: Some Categories Reconsidered,” Theological Studies48 (1987) 415-436.

J. Rebecca Lyman, “Arius and Arians," in Susan Harvey and David Hunter, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 237-257. One of the best brief overviews of new perspectives on the controversy.

Sara Parvis, Marcellus of Ancyra and the Lost Years of the Arian Controversy 325-345, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Peter Phan, ed., Cambridge Companion to the Trinity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) paperback, $33. NEW.

David Rankin, "Arianism," in Philip F. Esler, The Early Christian World (New York: Routledge, 2000), 2:975-1001. A good brief account of recent developments.

Hans Roldanus, The Church in the Age of Constantine: The Theological Challenges (New York: Routledge, 2006).

Jon M. Robertson, Christ as Mediator: A Study of the Theologies of Eusebius of Caesarea, Marcellus of Ancyra, and Athanasius of Alexandria, Oxford Theological Monographs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Manlio Simonetti, La crisi ariana nel iv secolo, Studia Ephemerides (Rome: Augustianum, 1975).

Basil Studer, Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church, ed. Andrew Louth (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993).

Richard Paul Vaggione, Eunomius of Cyzicus and the Nicene Revolution, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Maurice Wiles, Archetypal Heresy: Arianism Through the Centuries (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Rowan Williams, Arius: Heresy and Tradition, rev. ed. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002). First published in 1987, this study remains one of the finest studies of Arius. Williams skillfully dismantles long-standing misconceptions about Arius and his theology.

HISTORY OF THE EARLY CHURCH: SURVEYS

Henry Chadwick, The Church in Ancient Society: From Galilee to Gregory the Great, Oxford History of the Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). An up-to-date and comprehensive one-volume survey of early Christianity. Chadwick writes with great lucidity, able to make complex matters clear and understandable. The best place to start.

The Cambridge History of Christianity (New York / Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005- ). This new comprehensive Cambridge History will be recognized in coming decades as thestandard survey of Church history. Each of its massive volumes offer thorough introductions both to key events and to broad themes and includes contributions from leading contemporary historians. The two volumes that focus on early Christianity are:

        • Vol. 1: Frances Young & Margaret Mitchell, eds., Origins to Constantine (2005).

        • Vol. 2: Augustine Casiday & Frederick W. Norris, eds., Constantine to c. 600 (2007).

Philip F. Esler, ed. The Early Christian World, 2 vol. (New York: Routledge, 2000). This 1300-page, two-volume textbook surveys all the key aspects of early Christianity, its social and intellectual world, its art and worship, its intellectuals and its clashes, both internal and external. Each chapter is authored by an expert, and offers an up-to-date introduction to the topic. Most interesting is the set of “profiles” that close volume 2, chapters on Origen, Tertullian, Perpetua, Constantine, Antony, Athanasius, Jerome, Ambrose, Augustine and Ephrem.

Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, AD 200-1000, 2nd ed. (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2003).

Allen Brent, A Political History of Early Christianity (New York: T&T Clark / Continuum, 2009).

Virginia Burrus, ed., Late Ancient Christianity, A People's History of Christianity 2 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2005).

Henry Chadwick, East and West: The Making of a Rift in the Church: From Apostolic Times Until the Council of Florence, Oxford History of the Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Charles Freeman, A New History of Early Christianity (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009).

W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984).

Josef Lössl, Early Church: Christianity in Late Antiquity (New York: T&T Clark, 2010) paperback, $30. NEW.

Mark Humphries, Early Christianity (New York: Routledge, 2006).

John Meyendorff, Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions: the Church, 450-680 (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir Seminary Press, 1989).

Samuel Hugh Moffett, A History of Christianity in Asia, Vol. 1: Beginnings to 1500, 2nd edition (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1998).

Paul Veyne, When Our World Became Christian, 312-394 (Malden, MA: Polity, 2010) paperback, $25. NEW.

THEOLOGY OF THE EARLY CHURCH: SURVEYS

Robert L. Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003). A remarkably lucid introduction to early Christian theology—elegant simplicity on the far side of complexity. Especially good on the biblical moorings of early Christianity. Wilken peppers his survey with cogent anecdotes. Arranged thematically rather than chronologically.

Frances Young, Lewis Ayres & Andrew Louth, ed., The Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). A fine study of the literature (Greek, Latin, and Syriac) of the early Christian movement. This includes studies of individual authors as well as their intellectual, cultural, and religious context.

Lewis Ayres, Nicaea and Its Legacy: An Approach to Fourth-Century Trinitarian Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). A vital revisionist interpretation of the development of the doctrine of the divinity of Christ and of the Trinity. Not easy reading. Ayres presumes you know the standard accounts of the key figures and events, but he offers an essential re-interpretation and re-ordering of that history.

John Behr, Formation of Christian Theology, 2 volumes to date (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001-2004). An important survey from an Orthodox perspective.

Franz Dünzl, A Brief History of the Doctrine of the Trinity in the Early Church (London: T&T Clark, 2007). Excellent introduction to a complex and critical area of early Christian thought. Serves as a good bridge to reading more sophisticated studies by Behr and Ayres.

Mark Edwards, Catholicity and Heresy in the Early Church (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009).

G.R. Evans, ed., First Christian Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Early Church, The Great Theologians (Oxford: Blackwell, 2004). Articles too brief to be of much help.

Stuart G. Hall, Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church , 2nd ed. (London: SPCK, 2005).

Paul Hinlicky, Divine Complexity: The Rise of Creedal Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2010) paperback, $28. NEW.

J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, 5th edition (New York: Continuum, 2000). One of the best accounts on the development of doctrine. Excellent as a reference work.

R.A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). Not a survey, but intriguing perspectives on developments.

Jaroslav Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600), vol. 1 of The Christian Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971). Very distilled.

G.L. Prestige, Fathers and Heretics: Six Studies in Dogmatic Faith (London: SPCK, 1940). Dated, but a classic.

Johannes Roldanus, The Church in the Age of Constantine: The Theological Challenges (New York: Routledge, 2006).

Frances Young (with Andrew Teale), From Nicaea to Chalcedon, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2010). A classic, now in a new edition.   REFERENCE WORKS & HANDBOOKS

Susan Ashbrook Harvey & David Hunter, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) NEW in paperback. An extraordinarily wide-ranging survey of themes within and elements of early Christianity. There are chapters on key regions (Egypt, Syria, North Africa, Italy, Gau), emerging authorities and structures (clergy, biblical canon, councils, monasticism), elements of Christian culture (apologetics, homiletics, hagiography, poetry, philosophy), and ritual practices and piety (baptism, eucharist, prayer, pilgrimage). It emphasizes new discoveries and perspectives gleaned from recent scholarship and offers students insights into methodologies used by contemporary scholars. Each chapter, authored by a leading expert, has extensive (and partially annotated) bibliographies. Not to be missed.

Hubertus Drobner, The Fathers of the Church: A Comprehensive Introduction, trans. Siegfried Schatzmann; bibliographies updated and expanded for the English edition by William Harmless, SJ, & Hubertus Drobner (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2007). A translation of the 2nd edition of Drobner's Lehrbuch der Patrologie (Herder & Herder, 2002), this handbook offers a comprehensive introduction to the Church Fathers, together with extensive bibliographies on each figure and on all the major patristic texts. This is designed to replace an old standard, Johannes Quasten’s Patrology.

Aziz S. Atiya, ed., The Coptic Encyclopedia, 8 vol. (New York: Macmillan, 1991).

Robert Benedetto, ed., The New Westminster Dictionary of Church History, Volume One: The Early, Medieval, and Reformation Eras (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008).

G.W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, & Oleg Grabar, eds, Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Postclassical World (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press / Harvard University Press, 1999).

Henry Chadwick and Gillian R. Evans, ed., Atlas of the Christian Church (New York: Facts on File, 1987).

Angelo DiBerardino, ed., Encyclopedia of the Early Church, 2 vol., trans. Adrian Walford (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

David Farmer, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints, Oxford Paperback Reference, 4th ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Everett Ferguson, Michael P. McHugh, & Frederick W. Norris, eds., Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998).

Allan Fitzgerald, ed., Augustine Through the Ages: An Encyclopedia (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999).

Catherine Hezser, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Daily Life in Roman Palestine, Oxford Handbooks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) hardcover, $150. NEW.

J.N.D. Kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986).

Philippe Levillain, ed., The Papacy: An Encyclopedia, 3 vols. (New York: Routledge, 2001).

Elizabeth A. Livingstone, ed., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

Ian A. McFarland, David A.S. Fergusson, Karen Kilby, Iaian R. Torrance, eds, Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) hardcover, $201.39. NEW.

John A. McGuckin, The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2004).

Linda Murray & Peter Murray, eds., Dictionary of Christian Art, Oxford Paperback Reference (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Daniel Patte, ed. The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) paperback, $40. NEW.

Jaroslav Pelikan & Valerie Hotchkiss, ed., Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 4 vol. & CD-ROM.

John Roberts, ed., Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

J.W. Rogerson & Judith M. Lieu, eds., Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies, Oxford Handbooks in Religion and Theology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

JOURNALS & ESSAYS ON EARLY CHRISTIANITY

The most important patristics journal in the English-speaking world is the Journal of Early Christian Studies (Johns Hopkins University Press). Also important is Studia Patristica, which publishes the proceedings of the International Patristics Conference held in Oxford every four years. The two leading European patristics journals are Vigiliae Christianae and the Journal of Theological Studies. The former also publishes an excellent monograph series entitled "Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae." Other English-speaking journals that publish important articles relevant to the field are: Augustinian Studies, Journal of Roman Studies, Church History,Journal of Ecclesiastical History, American Benedictine Review, Harvard Theological Review,Studia Monastica, and Theological Studies.

Everett Ferguson, ed., Studies in Early Christianity (New York: Garland, 1993) hardcover. This valuable series reprints important and often hard-to-find journal articles. Titles are:

• Vol. 1: Personalities in the Early Church

• Vol. 2: The Literature of the Early Church

• Vol. 3: The Bible in the Early Church

• Vol. 4: Orthodoxy, Heresy, and Schism in Early Christianity.

• Vol. 5: Gnosticism in the Early Church (ed. David M. Scholer)

• Vol. 6: Early Christianity and Judaism

• Vol. 7: Church and State in the Early Church.

• Vol. 8: The Early Church and Greco-Roman Thought

• Vol. 9: Doctrines of God and Christ in the Early Church

• Vol. 10: Doctrines of Human Nature, Sin, and Salvation in the Early Church

• Vol. 11: Conversion, Catechumenate, and Baptism in the Early Church

• Vol. 12: Missions and Regional Characteristics of the Early Church

• Vol. 13: Church, Ministry, and Organization in the Early Church Era

• Vol. 14: Women in Early Christianity (ed. David M. Scholer)

• Vol. 15: Worship in the Early Church

• Vol. 16: Christian Life: Ethics, Morality and Discipline in the Early Church

• Vol. 17: Acts of Piety in the Early Church

• Vol. 18: Art, Archeology, and Architecture in Early Christianity (ed. Paul C. Finney).

Everett Ferguson, ed., Recent Studies in Early Christianity: A Collection of Scholarly Essays, 6 vol. (New York: Garland Publishing, 1999). This series has key articles from the 1990s.

• Vol. 1: The Social World of Early Christianity.

• Vol. 2: Christianity in Relation to Jews, Greeks, and Romans.

• Vol. 3: Norms of Faith and Life

• Vol. 4: Doctrinal Diversity: Varieties of Early Christianity.

• Vol. 5: Forms of Devotion: Conversion, Worship, Spirituality, and Asceticism.

• Vol. 6: History, Hope, Human Language, and Christian Reality.

Lewis Ayres & Gareth Jones, eds., Christian Origins: Theology, Rhetoric, and Community (New York: Routledge, 1998).

John Behr, Andrew Louth, & Dimitri Conomos, eds., Abba: The Tradition of Orthodoxy in the West: Festschrift for Bishop Kallistos Ware (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003).

Paul M. Blowers, ed., In Dominico eloquio: Essays on Patristic Exegesis in Honor of Robert Louis Wilken (Grand Rapid, Mich.: Wm. Eerdmans, 2002).

Gerald Bonner, Church and Faith in the Patristic Tradition: Augustine, Pelagianism and Early Christian Northumbria, Collected Studies 521 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1996).

Charles A. Bobertz and David Brakke, eds., Reading in Christian Communities: Essays on Interpretation in the Early Church (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002).

G.W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, & Oleg Grabar, eds, Interpreting Late Antiquity: Essays on the Postclassical World(Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press / Harvard University Press, 2001).

David Brakke, Michael L. Satlow, Steven Weitzman, eds., Religion and the Self in Antiquity(Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 2005).

Peter Brown, Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).

Peter Brown, Religion and Society in the Age of St. Augustine (1972; reprint: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007).

Henry Chadwick, Studies on Ancient Christianity, Collected Studies 832 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing, 2006).

Henry Chadwick, Heresy and Orthodoxy in the Early Church, Collected Studies 342 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1991).

Henry Chadwick, History and Thought of the Early Church, Collected Studies 164 (London: Various Reprints, 1982).

Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall & Gerald O’Collins, eds., The Trinity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Trinity(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). While some essays range beyond patristics, there is much of use to patristic scholars. See especially the essays by Joseph Lienhard and Michel Barnes.

Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall & Gerald O’Collins, eds., The Incarnation: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Incarnation of the Son of God (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002). While some essays go beyond patristics, there is much here of use. See especially essays by Brian E. Daley and Sarah Coakley.

W.H.C. Frend, Orthodoxy, Paganism, and Dissent in the Early Christian Centuries, Collected Studies 750 (London: Variorum Reprints, 2002).

W.H.C. Frend, Archeology and History in the Study of Early Christianity, Collected Studies 282 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1988).

W.H.C. Frend, Town and Country in the Early Christian Centuries (London: Variorum Reprints, 1980).

W.H.C. Frend, Religion, Popular and Unpopular in the Early Christian Centuries, Collected Studies 45 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1976).

James Howard-Johnston & Paul Antony Hayward, eds., The Cult of the Saints in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages: Essays on the Contribution of Peter Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

William E. Klingshirn & Mark Vessey, eds., The Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R.A. Markus (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1999).

R.A. Markus, From Augustine to Gregory the Great: History and Christianity in Late Antiquity, Collected Studies 169 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1983).

R.A. Markus, Sacred and Secular: Studies on Augustine and Latin Christianity, Collected Studies 465 (London: Variorum Reprints, 1996).

Dale B. Martin and Patricia Cox Miller, eds., The Cultural Turn in Late Antique Studies: Gender, Asceticism, and Historiography (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005).

Cornelius Mayer, ed. Homo Spiritualis: Festgabe für Luc Verheijen OSA (Würzburg: Augustinus-Verlag, 1987).

Frederick W. Norris, Abraham Malherbe, & James W. Thompson, ed., The Early Church in Context: Essays in Honor of Everett Ferguson, Supplements to Novum Testamentum 80 (Leiden: Brill, 1998).

John J. O’Meara, Studies in Augustine and Eriugena, ed. Thomas Halton (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1992).

Ronnie J. Rombs and Alexander Y. Hwang, eds., Tradition and the Rule of Faith in the Early Church (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2010) hardcover, $40. NEW.

 Rowan Williams, ed., The Making of Orthodoxy: Essays in Honour of Henry Chadwick (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

THE ROMAN EMPIRE: HISTORY & SOCIETY

The range of scholarly studies on the Roman Empire and the classical world, within which early Christianity emerged, is obviously massive. Here are some recent works especially relevant to early Christian studies:

The Cambridge Ancient History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1970- ), 13 volumes to date. This is the standard scholarly survey history of the ancient world. Three volumes of this intersect with the patristic period:

• Vol. 10: Alan Bowman, ed., The Augustan Empire: 43 BC-AD 69, 2nd ed. (1996).

• Vol. 11: Alan Bowman, ed., The High Empire: AD 70-192 (2001).

• Vol. 13: Averil Cameron & Peter Garnsey, eds., The Late Empire, A.D. 337-425 (1998).

• Vol. 14: Averil Cameron, ed., Late Antiquity: Empire and Successors (AD 425-600)(2001).

Alessandro Barchiesi & Walter Scheidel, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Roman Studies, Oxford Handbooks (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) hardcover, $152. NEW. A major comprehensive survey that offers chapters on materials and methods (text criticism, archeology, epigraphy, numismatics, papyrology, prosopography), genres of literature (epic, theater, letters, history, biography), historical periods, social dimensions, and key ancient ideas. The accent is on new scholarly perspectives.

Marcel Le Glay, Jean-Louis Voisin, & Yann LeBohec, A History of Rome, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000). A solid textbook survey of the 1300-year history of Rome, helpful in sorting out basics: emperors, the Senate, imperial bureaucracy; the army and its conquests; class structure, provinces & frontiers; trade & taxation. It includes valuable chronological charts and maps.

Roger S. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)

Roger S. Bagnall, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Papyrology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).

Timothy Barnes, Constantine: Dynasty, Religion and Power in the Later Roman Empire (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011) hardcover, $40. NEW.

Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price. Religions of Rome. 2 vol. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

Anthony R. Birley, Septimius Severus: The African Emperor, Roman Imperial Biographies (New York: Routledge, 1999).

Anthony R. Birley, Marcus Aurelius, Roman Imperial Biographies (New York: Routledge, 2000).

John Boardman, Jaspar Griffin, Oswyn Murray, ed., The Roman World, Oxford History of the Classical World, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Alan K. Bowman, Egypt After the Pharaohs, 332 BC-AD 642: From Alexander to the Arab Conquest (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).

Alan K. Bowman and Greg Woolf, eds., Literacy and Power in the Ancient World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750, Library of World Civilization (New York: W.W. Norton, 1971). A classic.

Thomas S. Burns, Rome and the Barbarians (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003). 

Averil Cameron, The Mediterranean World in Late Antiquity, AD 395-600, Routledge History of the Ancient World(New York: Routledge, 1993).

John Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century, Oxford Classical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

William Dominik and John Hall, eds., A Companion to Roman Rhetoric, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World(Oxford: Blackwell, 2007).

Katherine M.D. Dunbabin, The Roman Banquet: Images of Convivality (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

J.R. Elsner, Imperial Rome & Christian Triumph: The Art of the Roman Empire AD 100-450 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998).

Jas Elsner, Roman Eyes: Visuality and Subjectivity in Art and Text (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007).

Hugh Elton, Warfare in Roman Europe, 350-425 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

J.A.S. Evans, The Age of Justinian: The Circumstances of Imperial Power, Roman Imperial Biographies (New York: Routledge, 2000).Richard Finn, ed., Almsgiving in the Later Roman Empire: Christian Promotion and Practice (313-450), Oxford Classical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

Jennifer A. Glancy, Slavery in Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Martin Goodman, The Roman World, 44BC-AD180, Routledge History of the Ancient World (New York: Routledge, 1997).

Martin Goodman, Jews in a Greco-Roman World, rev. ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Anthony Grafton, Glenn W. Most, and Salvatore Settis,The Classical Tradition, Harvard University Press Reference Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010) hardcover, $41. NEW. A major (and massive) new one-volume encyclopedia..

Judith Evans Grubbs, ed., Woman and the Law in the Roman Empire: A Sourcebook on Marriage, Divorce, and Widowhood (New York: Routledge, 2002).

Pierre Hadot, What Is Ancient Philosophy? trans. Michael Chase (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002).

Kim Haines-Eitzen, Guardians of Letters: Literary, Power, and the Transmitters of Early Christian Literature (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).

Kyle Harper, Slavery in the Late Roman World, AD 275-425 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) hardcover, $134. NEW.

Stephen Harrison, ed., A Campanion to Latin Literature, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).

Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth & Simon Spawforth, eds. Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Benjamin Isaac, The Invention of Racism in Classical Antiquity (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004).

Robert B. Jackson, At the Empire’s Edge: Exploring Rome’s Egyptian Frontier (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002).

A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602, 2 vol. (reprint: Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1978). Classic survey of the social world of the Roman Empire; dated, but unsurpassed.

Craig W. Kallendorf, ed., A Companion to the Classical Tradition, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World(Oxford: Blackwell, 2007).

Christopher Kelly, Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005).

George A. Kennedy, A New History of Classical Rhetoric (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994).

Jason Konig, Athletics and Literature in the Roman Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Donald Kyle, Spectacles of Death in Ancient Rome, Approaching the Ancient World (New York: Routledge, 1998).

Bertrand Lancon, Rome in Late Antiquity, AD 313-604 (New York: Routledge, 2000).

Noel Lenski, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Constantine (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

A.A. Long, Hellenistic Philosophy: Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, 2nd ed., 2 vol. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).

Michael Maas, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the Age of Justinian (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005).

Michael Maas, Michael, Readings in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. (New York: Routledge, 2010) paperback, $48. NEW.

Ralph W. Mathiesen and Danuto Shanzer, eds., Romans, Barbarians and the Transformation of the Roman World(Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2011) hardcover, $137. NEW.

Fergus Millar, The Emperor in the Roman World (reprint: Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992).

Fergus Millar, A Greek Roman Empire: Power and Belief under Theodosius II, 408-450 (Berkeley: University of California, 2007).

Ruth Morello and A. D. Morrison, Ancient Letters: Classical and Late Antique Epistolography (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

George Mousourakis, A Legal History of Rome (New York: Routledge, 2007).

Geoffrey S. Nathan, The Family in Late Antiquity: The Rise of Christianity and the Endurance of Tradition (New York: Routledge, 2000).

J.A. North and S.R.F. Price, eds., The Religious History of the Roman Empire: Pagans, Jews, and Christians, Oxford Readings in Classical Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) hardcover, $180. NEW.

Charles Matson Odahl, Constantine and the Christian Empire, Roman Imperial Biographies (New York: Routledge, 2004).

Neville Morley, Trade in Class Antiquity, Key Themes in Ancient History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).

Daniel Ogden, ed., A Companion to Greek Religion, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007).

David S. Potter, The Roman Empire at Bay, AD 180-395, Routledge History of the Ancient World (New York: Routledge, 2004).

David S. Potter, ed., A Companion to the Roman Empire, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).

Simon Price and Emily Kearns, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth and Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Beryl Rawson & Paul Weaver, eds., The Roman Family in Italy: Status, Sentiment, Space (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997).

John Roberts, ed., Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Michele Renee Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002).

David Sedley, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

Pat Southern, The Roman Empire from Severus to Constantine (New York: Routledge, 2001).

Pat Southern, The Late Roman Army (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996).

Andrew Smith, Philosophy in Late Antiquity (New York: Routledge, 2004).

John E. Stambaugh, The Ancient Roman City, Ancient Society and History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1994).

Simon Swain & Mark Edwards, eds., Approaching Late Antiquity: The Transformation from Early to Late Empire(New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Robert Turcan, The Gods of Ancient Rome: Religion in Everyday Life from Archaic to Imperial Times, trans. Antonia Nevill (New York: Routledge, 2000).

Susan Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991).

Raymond Van Dam, Kingdom of Snow: Roman Rule and Greek Culture in Cappadocia(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).

Paul Veyne, ed., The History of Private Life, Vol. 1: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987).

Edward J. Watts, City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, Transformation of the Classical Heritage(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006).

Leslie Webster and Michelle Brown, eds., The Transformation of the Roman World, AD 400-900(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997).

C.R. Whittaker, Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Ancient Society and History (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1996).

Stephen Williams & Gerard Friell, Theodosius: The Empire at Bay (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).

Ian Worthington, ed., A Companion to Greek Rhetoric, Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).

FATHERS OF THE CHURCH: TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

The monumental collection of the Greek and Latin texts of the Church Fathers was done by J.P. Migne in the mid-19th century: the Patrologia Graeca (PG) and the Patrologia Latina(PL). Migne's editions are slowly being replaced by modern critical editions. Two important series offering critical editions are the Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum (CSEL) and the Corpus Christianorum Series Latina (CCL). The most important contemporary series is the Sources chrétiennes (SC) (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1950s), which has published 500+ volumes to date; it has the original text (either Greek or Latin) with a French translation on the facing page; volumes also include extensive introductions and notes. Also important is the 500+ volume series, Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium (CSCO), which publishes texts preserved in the languages of the Christian East (Coptic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, Arabic, and Ethiopic), with a translation into a modern European language (usually English, French, or German). There are also series that offer English translations. The major series with complete works are the following:

Fathers of the Church, 122 volumes to date (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1948- ). The early volumes from the 1940s and 1950s are uneven, but recent volumes are dependable and often excellent both in the quality of the translations and in the accompanying introductions and notes.

Ancient Christian Writers, 63 volumes to date (Westminster, MD: Newman Press / New York: Paulist Press, 1946- ). Overall, solid translations. This was once a top series, but not many volumes have come out in recent years.

Ante-Nicene Fathers, 10 volumes (reprint: Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). These translations were done in the mid 19th century, but remain often the only English translation of certain works.

Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers28 volumes (reprint: Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995). The first series contains the works of Augustine and John Chrysostom; the second, translations of other major figures and documents. These translations were done in the mid 19th-century, and many remain the only ones available in English.

The Works of St. Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, ed. John E. Rotelle and Boniface Ramsey (Brooklyn, NY: New City Press, 1990- ). This series, which began in 1990, will take at least another decade to complete. It is sponsored by the Augustinian Heritage Institute. Already published are the complete Sermones ad Populum (11 volumes, including the newly discovered Dolbeau sermons), the complete Expositions of the Psalms(6 volumes), the complete Letters (4 volumes, including the recently discovered Divjak letters), the complete anti-Pelagian treatises (4 volumes), and the complete anti-Manichean writings (2 volumes).

Popular Patristics Series, ed. John Behr (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1979). 42 volumes to date, and rapidly expanding. Very reasonably priced ($12-$15), with good, up-to-date translations. Volumes generally focus on a single work, e.g. Irenaeus' On the Apostolic Preaching, Ephrem the Syrian's Hymns on Paradise, Cyril of Alexandria's On the Unity of Christ.

Translated Texts for Historians (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1985). This series concentrates on individual classic works both from late antiquity (such as Optatus of Milevis, Ambrose, Gregory of Tours) and from the early Middle Ages (notably from Cassiodorus, Gregory of Tours, and Bede). Generally excellent translations, introductions, and notes.

Cistercian Studies Series (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1975). This series mainly includes translations and studies of medieval monastic figures, but it does have a number of valuable translations of early monastic texts, such as the works by Pachomius, Evagrius Ponticus, Theodoret of Cyrus, Diadochus of Photike, the Syriac Liber Graduum (Book of Steps), and Cyril of Scythopolis.

Ancient Christian Texts (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2009). A new series with 6 volumes to date, including the first English translation of Ambrosiaster and biblical commentaries by Origen and Theodore of Mopsuestia.

Classics of Western Spirituality, ed. Bernard McGinn (New York: Paulist Press, 1978). While this 100+ volume series is not limited to patristic authors, it does contain the works of a number of the leading Church Fathers, including Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, John Cassian, Pseudo-Macarius, Maximus the Confessor, and Pseudo-Dionyius.

FATHERS OF THE CHURCH: ANTHOLOGIES

For most people, the best entrance into Church Fathers is reading anthologies. It is a good way to find out who and what interests you. Here are some of the better anthologies or collections:

Carol Harrison, ed., Early Church Fathers Series, 18 volumes to date (New York: Routledge, 1996-2009) paperback, $25-35 per volume. This recent series concentrates on individual Church Fathers. Each volume has a lengthy introduction followed by new translations of major (and often previously untranslated) works:

 

• Pauline Allen & C.T.R. Hayward, Severus of Antioch (2004).

• Khalid Anatolios, Athanasius (2004).

• A.M. Casiday, Evagrius Ponticus (2006).

• Brian E. Daley, Gregory of Nazianzus (2006).

• Geoffrey Dunn, Tertullian (2004).

• Robert M. Grant, Irenaeus of Lyons (1997).

• István Pásztori Kupán, Theodoret of Cyrus (2006).

• Andrew Louth, Maximus the Confessor (1996).

• Frederick McLeod, Theodore of Mopsuestia (2009).

• John Moorhead, Gregory the Great (2005).

• Wendy Meyer & Pauline Allen, John Chrysostom (2000).

• Anthony Meredith, Gregory of Nyssa (1999).

• Bronwen Neil, Leo the Great (2009).

• Boniface Ramsey, Ambrose (1997).

• Stefan Rebenich, Jerome (2002).

• Norman Russell, Cyril of Alexandria (2000).

• Norman Russell, Theophilus of Alexandria (2007).

• Joseph W. Trigg, Origen (1998).

• Carolinne White, Early Christian Latin Poets (2000).

• Edward Yarnold, Cyril of Jerusalem (2000).

J. Stevenson, ed., A New Eusebius: Documents Illustrative of the history of the Church to AD 337 and Creeds, Councils, Controversies: Documents Illustrative of the history of the Church AD 337-461, revised edition by W.H.C. Frend (London: SPCK, 1987 & 1989). An indispensable pair of anthologies. Stevenson assembles snippets from a vast range of hard-to-find materials: acts of Christian martyrs, conciliar documents, key passages from heretics and persecutors, inscriptions on coins and catacombs, snatches of gossip in scattered letters. The end result is a brilliant mosaic of early Christianity.

Bart D. Ehrman, ed. After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Covers up to c. 300.

Bart D. Ehrman & Andrew Jacobs, ed., Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E.: A Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

Thomas Halton, ed., Message of the Fathers of the Church, 22 volumes (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1980s-1997). Volumes arranged by topic: the Holy Spirit, baptism, eucharist, biblical interpretation, women, prayer, social ethics, etc.

William Harmless, ed., Augustine in His Own Words (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press, 2010) paperback, $31. NEW. A comprehensive anthology of the writings of Augustine.

A.D. Lee, ed., Pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook (New York: Routledge, 2000).

Thomas C. Oden & Christopher H. Hall, eds., The Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, 26 volumes to date(Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 1998- ).

Richard Valantasis, ed., Religions of Late Antiquity in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).

EARLY CHRISTIAN MONASTICISM & SPIRITUALITY: SURVEYS

William Harmless, Desert Christians: An Introduction to the Literature of Early Monasticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004) paperback, $32. 4th-century Christians moved in droves to the deserts of Egypt and, in the famous words of Saint Athanasius, made the desert a city. In so doing, they captured the imagination of the ancient world. They forged techniques of prayer and asceticism, of discipleship and spiritual direction, that have remained central to Christianity ever since. Seeking to map the soul’s long journey to God and plot out the subtle vagaries of the human heart, they created and inspired texts that became classics of Western spirituality. These Desert Christians were also brilliant storytellers, some of Christianity’s finest. This book introduces the key texts of early monasticism: Athanasius’ Life of Antony, the Lives of Pachomius, the Sayings of the Desert Fathers, the writings of Evagrius, Palladius, and John Cassian. Along the way, readers are introduced to path-breaking discoveries—to new texts and recent archeological finds—that have revolutionized contemporary scholarship on monastic origins. Included are fascinating snippets from papyri and from little-known Coptic, Syriac, and Ethiopic texts. Interspersed in each chapter are illustrations, maps, and diagrams that help readers sort through the key texts and the richly-textured world of early monasticism.

David Brakke, Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006).

Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity(New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).

Peter Brown, Society and the Holy in Late Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982). See the classic essay, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity.”

Peter Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, 1971-1997,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998) 353-376. A follow-up to & re-assessment of his classic.

Daniel Caner, Wandering, Begging Monks: Spiritual Authority and the Promotion of Monasticism in Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 33 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002).

Derwas Chitty, The Desert A City (1966; reprint: Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1997). The classic survey.

George E. Demacopoulos, Five Models of Spiritual Direction in the Early Church (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2006).

Vincent Desprez, Le Monachisme Primitif: Des origines jusqu’au concile d'Éphèse, Spiritualité orientale 72 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1998).

Maribel Dietz, Wandering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 300-800(University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2005).

Marilyn Dunn, The Emergence of Monasticism: From the Desert Fathers to the Early Middle Ages(Oxford: Blackwell, 2000).

H. Evelyn-White, The Monasteries of Wadi ‘n Natrûn, Part Two: The History of the Monasteries of Nitria and of Scetis(New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition, 1932) Dated, but the brilliant starting point for all major studies in this century.

James E. Goehring, Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism(Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999).

James E. Goehring and Janet Timbie, eds., The World of Early Egyptian Christianity: Language, Literature, and Social Context, CUA Studies in Early Christianity (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2007).

Antoine Guillaumont, Aux origenes du monachisme chrétien: Pour une phénoménologie du monachisme, Spiritualité orientale 30 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1979).

Antoine Guillaumont, Études sur la spiritualité de l’Orient chrétien, Spiritualité orientale 66 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, France: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1996).

William Harmless, “Monasticism,” in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, ed. David G. Hunter & Susan Ashbrook Harvey (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) 493-517. A brief overview of trends in contemporary scholarship.

William W. Johnston, ed, Encyclopedia of Monasticism, 2 vol. (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000) An up-to-date reference work.

Juan Laboa, ed., The Historical Atlas of Eastern and Western Monasticism (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004). Magnificent photos, undependable text.

Andrew Louth, The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

Harriet A. Luckman & Linda Kulzer, eds., Purity of Heart in Early Ascetic and Monastic Literature(Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1999).

Patricia Cox Miller, The Corporeal Imagination: Signifying the Holy in Late Ancient Christianity, Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009) hardcover, $50. NEW.

Tomas Spidlik, The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook, Cistercian Studies 79 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1986).

Tomas Spidlik, Prayer: The Spirituality of the Christian East, Vol. 2 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2005).

Columba Stewart, “Monasticism,” in Philip E. Esler, The Early Christian World (New York: Routledge, 2000) 1:344-366.

Vincent L. Wimbush and Richard Valantasis, ed., Asceticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995).

Vincent L. Wimbush, ed., Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook(Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990). Translations of valuable, but hard-to-find sources.

ATHANASIUS & THE LIFE OF ANTONY (Vita Antonii)

Texts & Translations:

Athanasius, The Life of Anthony and the Letter to Marcellinus, Classics of Western Spirituality, trans. Robert C. Gregg (New York: Paulist Press, 1980). The Life of Antony (Vita Antonii) was one of the great religious best-sellers of ancient world and was responsible for popularizing the desert ideal throughout the ancient world. This work would shape all later lives of the saints.

G.J.M. Bartelink, ed., Athanasius: Vie d’Antoine, Sources chrétiennes 400 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1994). An up-to-date critical edition of the Greek text, with a French translation and valuable introduction and notes.

Studies:

David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998). A reprint of Brakke’s Athanasius & the Politics of Asceticism, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). Athanasius is better known as a defender of Nicene orthodoxy. This is a valuable in-depth study of Athanasius’ commitment to the ascetic movement. Its final chapter on the Life of Antony is excellent, but he also looks at women’s asceticism in Alexandria and translates little-known Athanasian texts preserved in Syriac and Coptic.

David Brakke, “The Greek and Syriac Versions of the Life of Antony,” Le Muséon 107 (1994):29-53.

Samuel Rubenson, The Letters of St. Antony: Monasticism and the Making of a Saint, Studies in Antiquity and Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1995). A revisionist view.

Columba Stewart, “Anthony of the Desert,” in Philip F. Esler, ed. The Early Christian World (New York: Routledge, 2000) 2:1088-1101.

APOPHTHEGMATA PATRUM (SAYINGS OF THE DESERT FATHERS) Texts & Translations:

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers: The Alphabetical Collection [Apophthegmata Patrum] trans. Benedicta Ward, Cistercian Studies 59 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1984). This is the so-called Apophthegmata Patrum (“Sayings of the Fathers”), fascinating anecdotes about and one-liners from the simple, unlearned, and often eccentric leaders  of the early desert movement. The Apophthegmata has come down to us in two basic forms: the Alphabetical Collection and the Systematic Collection. The Alphabetical gathers the various stories and sayings under the names of prominent monks and arranges these according to the Greek alphabet. It contains some 1,000 sayings or brief narratives, grouped under the names of over 130 “abbas.”

The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks [=Verba Seniorum of Pelagius and John] Penguin Classics, trans. Benedicta Ward (London: Penguin Books: 2003). In addition to the Alphabetical Collection, there is also the Systematic Collection. It contains many of the same sayings and stories, but gathers them under 21 different headings or themes: for instance, “quiet” (hesychia), “compunction,” “discernment,” “unceasing prayer,” “hospitality,” “humility,” etc. In the mid-6th century, a version of this Systematic Collection was translated from Greek into Latin by two Roman clerics, the deacon Pelagius and the subdeacon John (who perhaps became the later Popes Pelagius and John). This would deeply touch the spirituality of Western monasticism. This new translation supplants the older one by Owen Chadwick in Western Asceticism.

Jean-Claude Guy, ed., Les Apophtegmes des Pères, I-IX, Sources Chrétiennes 387 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1993). A critical edition of the Greek text with a French translation.

Benedicta Ward, ed., The Wisdom of the Desert Fathers: Systematic Sayings from the Anonymous Series of the Apophthegmata Patrum, SLG 48 (Cistercian Publications, 1986).

Studies:

Douglas Burton-Christie, The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism (New York: Oxford, 1993). A detailed study of the biblical spirituality that shaped Egyptian monasticism. It provides a good treatment of matters far beyond its specific focus: asceticism, work, abbas and disciples, etc.

Graham E. Gould, The Desert Fathers on Monastic Community, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).

Antoine Guillaumont, “L’enseignement spirituel des moines d’Égypte: La formation d’une tradition,” reprinted in Études sur la spiritualité de l’Orient chrétien, Spiritualité orientale 66 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges, France: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1996) 81-92.

Antoine Guillaumont, “Le Problème des deux Macaires dans les Apophthegmata Patrum,” Irénikon 48 (1975) 41-59. Few essays illustrate better the technical problems of recovering the history behind the Apophthegmata. Antoine Guillaumont, “Les visions mystiques dans le monachisme oriental chrétien,” inAux origenes du monachisme chrétien, 136-147.

William Harmless, “Remembering Poemen Remembering: The Desert Fathers & the Spirituality of Memory,” Church History 69 (2000) 483-518. An exploration of Abba Poemen, the leading story-teller whose memory helped shaped the Apophthegmata.

Irénée Hausherr, Penthos: the Doctrine of Compunction in the Christian East, trans. Anselm Hufstader, Cistercian Studies 53 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1982). A classic.

Irénée Hausherr, Spiritual Direction in the Early Christian East, CS 116, trans. Anthony P. Gythiel (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1990; original French edition, 1955).

Lucien Regnault, “Aux origines des collections d’Apophtegmes,” Studia Patristica 18.2 (1989) 61-74.

Lucien Regnault, The Day-To-Day Life of the Desert Fathers in Fourth-Century Egypt (Petersham, MA: St. Bede’s, 1999).

Columba Stewart, “Radical Honesty about the Self: Practice of the Desert Fathers,” Sobornost 12 (1990) 25-39.

Benedicta Ward, “Traditions of Spiritual Guidance: Spiritual Direction in the Desert Fathers,”Signs and Wonders: Saints, Miracles, and Prayers from the 4th Century to the 14th(London: Variorum Reprints, 1992).

PACHOMIUS

Translations:

Armand Veilleux, ed., Pachomian Koinonia: the Lives, Rules, and Other Writings of Saint Pachomius, Cistercian Studies 45-47 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1980-1982). Pachomius has often been described as the “inventor” of the monastery. This brilliant edition includes translations of both the Greek and Coptic Life of Pachomius, as well as documents from Pachomius himself and his early successors, Theodore and Horsiesius. This collection, translating sources from Greek, Sahidic Coptic, Bohairic Coptic, Latin, is a staggering scholarly achievement.

Studies:

Henry Chadwick, “Pachomios and the Idea of Sanctity,” reprinted in History and Thought of the Early Church (London: Variorum Reprints, 1982).

Vincent Desprez, “Pachomian Cenobitism,” American Benedictine Review 43 (1992) 233-249 & 358-394.

James E. Goehring, The Letter of Ammon and Pachomian Monasticism, Patristische Texte und Studien 27 (Berlin, 1986).

James E. Goehring, Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism(Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999). See especially: “New Frontiers in Pachomian Studies” and “Withdrawing from the Desert: Pachomius and the Development  of Village Monasticism.”

Philip Rousseau, Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth Century Egypt, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 6 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999). Armand Veilleux, “Monasticism and Gnosis in Egypt,” in Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring, eds., The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1986) 271-306.

EVAGRIUS PONTICUS

Texts & Translations:

Antoine Guillaumont & Claire Guillaumont, eds., Évagre le Pontique, Traité Practique ou le Moine, Sources chrétiennes 170-171 (Paris: Édiions du Cerf, 1971). Evagrius was afriend of the Cappadocians Fathers and would become the first great theoretician of the spiritual life. He stressed the centrality of wordless, imageless prayer, and his writings display a fondness for brief, oracular sayings. Within a year of his death, his friends and disciples—Palladius, Cassian, Rufinus—would be persecuted as “Origenists” and run out of Egypt. Evagrius was condemned 150 years later, and his works circulated anonymously. This has a critical edition of his most famous work, the Praktikos, together with a French translation and opens with a superb 100-page overview of Evagrius’ life and teaching.

Robert E. Sinkewicz, Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003). This recent edition offers the first attempt by a single translator to make the bulk of Evagrius’ writings available to the English-speaking public. This includes fresh translation of Evagrius’ best-known works (such as the Praktikos and the Chapters on Prayer) and the first translation of other important works, such as To Eulogius and On the Eight Thoughts. Sinkewicz does not venture into the sizeable (and difficult-to-translate) portion of Evagrius’ work only available in Syriac.

David Brakke, trans., Evagrius of Pontus: Talking Back (Antirhêtikos): A Monastic Handbook for Combating Demons, Cistercian Studies 229 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications / Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009) paperback, $25. NEW. David Brakke has produced the very first English translation of Evagrius' remarkable treatise on the 8 "thoughts," a list of 498 temptations. Evagrius' contemporaries, such as his biographer Palladius, considered it his important work. The work, though written originally in  Greek, has been preserved only in ancient Syriac translation. This new edition provides helpful insight into the inner lives of the Desert Fathers and the emerging traditions of ancient spiritual direction.

John Eudes Bamberger, Evagrius Ponticus: Praktikos and Chapters on Prayer, Cistercian Studies 4 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1981).

Augustine Casiday, Evagrius Ponticus, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2006). This has a number of helpful translations, including Evagrius' On the Faith and his controversial Great Letter (better known as the Letter to Melania).

Jeremy Driscoll, Evagrius Ponticus: The Ad Monachos: Translation and Commentary, Ancient Christian Writers 59(New York: Paulist Press, 2003).

Antoine Guillaumont, Évagre Le Pontique: Le Gnostique ou a celui qui est devenu digne de la science, Sources Chrétiennes 356 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1989).

Martin Parmentier, “Evagrius of Pontus and the ‘Letter to Melania’” Bijdragen, tijdschrift voor filosofie en theologie 46 (1985) 2-38; reprinted in Everett Ferguson, Forms of Devotion: Conversion, Worship, Spirituality, and Asceticism (New York: Garland, 1999) 272-309.

Studies:

Gabriel Bunge, Geistliche Vatershaft. Christliche Gnosis bei Evagrios Pontikos, Studia Patristica et Liturgica 23 (Regensburg, 1988). Also available in French: Paternité Spirituelle: La gnose chrétienne chez Évagre le Pontique, Spiritualité orientale 61 (Bégrolles-en-Mauge: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1994).

Kevin Corrigan, Evagrius and Gregory, Ashgate Studies in Philosophy & Theology in Late Antiquity (Ashgate, 2009) hardcover, $100. NEW.

Jeremy Driscoll, Steps to Spiritual Perfection: Studies on Spiritual Progress in Evagrius Ponticus(New York: Paulist Press, 2005).

Luke Dysinger, Psalmody and Prayer in the Writings of Evagrius Ponticus, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Susanna Elm, “Evagrius Ponticus’ Sententiae ad Virginem,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 45 (1991):97-120.

Antoine Guillaumont, Les <<kephalaia gnostica>> d’Evagre le Pontique et l’histoire de l’origénisme chez les grecs et chez les syriens, Patristica Sorbonensia 5 (Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1962).

William Harmless, “‘Salt for the Impure, Light for the Pure’: Reflections on the Pedagogy of Evagrius Ponticus,” Studia Patristica 37 (2001) 514-526.

William Harmless & Raymond R. Fitzgerald, “The Sapphire Light of the Mind: The Skemmata of Evagrius Ponticus,” Theological Studies 62.3 (September, 2001) 493-529. A translation of and commentary on one of Evagrius’ most important mystical works.

Irénée Hausherr, Les Leçons d’un Contemplative: Le Traité de l’Oraison d’Evagre le Pontique(Paris: Beauchesne, 1960). A brilliant commentary on Evagrius’ On Prayer.

Julia Konstantinovsky, Evagrius Ponticus: The Making of a Gnostic, Ashgate New Critical Thinking in Religion, Theology, and Biblical Studies (Aldersgate: Ashgate, 2008).

Columba Stewart, “Imageless Prayer and the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 173-204.

Robin Darling Young, “Evagrius the Iconographer: Monastic Pedagogy in the Gnostikos,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001) 53-72.

JOHN CASSIAN 

Texts & Translations:

John Cassian, The Conferences, trans. Boniface Ramsey, Ancient Christian Writers 57 (New York: Paulist Press, 1997). These are Cassian’s (somewhat fictionalized) reminiscences of his interviews with the Desert Fathers—written some 20 years after leaving Egypt for southern France. The first complete translation in a century. A good translation byColm Luibheid of about 1/3 of the Conferences is also available in the Classics of Western Spirituality.

John Cassian, The Institutes, trans. Boniface Ramsey, Ancient Christian Writers 58 (New York: Paulist Press, 2000). Cassian’s summary of the guiding principles of Eastern (and mostly Egyptian) monasticism. This includes a long section on what would become the “Seven Deadly Sins”—an analysis Cassian derives from Evagrius. This new translation is the first one in over a century.

Studies

Columba Stewart, Cassian the Monk (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Cassian probably did more than anyone else to translate the desert experience for the West. Following his teacher, Evagrius Ponticus, he stressed wordless prayer and the mystical journey of the soul. St. Benedict, in his Rule, would make Cassian’s memoirs required reading in all his monasteries. This is a superb in-depth of Cassian’s spirituality.

A.M.C. Casiday, Tradition and Theology in St. John Cassian, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

A.M.C. Casiday, "Cassian against Pelagianism," Studia Monastica 46 (2004): 1-27.

Owen Chadwick, John Cassian (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950). A classic.

Columba Stewart, “The Monastic Journey According to John Cassian,” Word and Spirit 19 (1993) 29-40; reprinted in Everett Ferguson, Forms of Devotion: Conversion, Worship, Spirituality, and Asceticism (New York: Garland, 1999) 311-322.

Adalbert de Vogüé, “Understanding Cassian: A Survey of the Conferences,” Cistercian Studies Quarterly 19 (1984) 101-121.

Rebecca Harden Weaver, Divine Grace and Human Agency: A Study of the Semi-Pelagian Controversy, Patristic Monograph Series 15 (Macon GA: Mercer University Press, 1996).

EARLY EGYPTIAN MONASTICISM: OTHER SOURCES & STUDIES 

 

Texts & Translations:

Lives of the Desert Fathers [Historia Monachorum in Aegypto], trans. Norman Russell, Cistercian Studies 34 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1981). In 394, seven Palestinian monks journeyed to Egypt to visit the great figures there. This is a vivid (and sometimes fanciful) account of what they heard and saw. This edition has a good 40-page introduction by Benedicta Ward.

Robert T. Meyer, ed., Palladius: The Lausiac History, Ancient Christian Writers 34 (New York: Paulist Press, 1965). Palladius was a disciple of Evagrius and was ordained bishop by John Chrysostom. He was also one of the earliest historians of Christian monasticism. This work is a set of vignettes of leading Desert Fathers and Mothers. 

Tim Vivian, ed., St. Macarius the Spiritbearer: Coptic Texts Relating to Saint Macarius the Great, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2004).

Tim Vivian, ed., Four Desert Fathers: Pambo, Evagrius, Macarius of Egypt & Macarius of Alexandria, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2004). The first English translation of the Coptic Palladiana.

Adalbert de Vogüé and Gabriel Bunge, Quatre Érmites Égyptiens: D’après les fragments coptes de l’Histoire Lausiaque, Spiritualité orientale 60 (Begrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1994).

 

Studies:

Stephen Emmel, Shenoute’s Literary Corpus, 2 vol., CSCO 599-600 (Peeters Publishers, 2004). Highly technical, but a major reconstruction and study of one of the most important and least known of the great monks of Egypt.

Georgia Frank, The Memory of the Eyes: Pilgrims to the Living Saints in Christian Late Antiquity, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 30 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000).

Rebecca Krawiec, Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Caroline T. Schroeder, Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe(University of Pennsylvani Press, 2007).

Caroline T. Schroeder, " 'A Suitable Abode for Christ': The Church Building as Symbol for Ascetic Renunciation in Early Monasticism," Church History 73.3 (2004) 472-521. Benedicta Ward, “Signs and Wonders: Miracles in the Desert Tradition,” Studia Patristica 17, ed. Elizabeth A. Livingstone (Leuven, 1989) 539-542; reprint in Signs and Wonders(London: Variorum Reprints, 1992).

EARLY MONASTICISM IN CAPPADOCIA, PALESTINE & SYRIA

 

Texts & Translations:

Barsanuphius and John, Letters, 2 vol., Fathers of the Church 113-114, trans. John Chryssavgis (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006-2007). This is the first complete English translation of a sprawling correspondence, nearly 850 letters, of two sixth-century leaders of Palestinian monasticism, Barsanuphius and John of Gaza. The two—referred to as “the Great Old Man” and “the Other Old Man”—lived as enclosed hermits in Gaza and, from their dark cells, directed a monastic community. The two hermits met the wider world via an intermediary, Abba Seridos, who passed on brief  notes written in response to questions of inquirers. The back-and-forth of question-and-answer is so detailed that one can literally chart the spiritual ups-and-downs of ancient directees and glimpse how ancient masters practiced the art of spiritual direction.

Cyril of Scythopolis, The Lives of the Monks of Palestine, trans. R.M. Price, Cistercian Studies 114 (Kalamazoo, WI: Cistercian Publications, 1991).

Dorotheus of Gaza, Discourses and Sayings, trans., Eric P. Wheeler, Cistercian Studies 33 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987).

Isaac of Nineveh, On the Ascetical Life, trans. Mary Hansbury (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1987).

Isaiah of Scetis, Ascetic Discourses, Cistercian Studies 150, trans. John Chryssavgis and Pachomios Penkett(Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2002).

Mark the Monk, Counsels on the Spiritual Life, trans. Tim Vivian and Augustine Casiday, Popular Patristic series(Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009) paperback, $24. NEW.

John Mochus, The Spiritual Meadow, trans. John Wortley, Cistercian Studies (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992).

Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, trans. George A. Maloney, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist Press, 1992). Theodoret of Cyrrhus, A History of the Monks of Syria, trans. R.M. Price, Cistercian Studies 88 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1985).

Robert Doran, ed., The Lives of Symeon Stylites, Cistercian Studies 112 (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1992).

John Chryssavgis, trans., Letters from the Desert: A Selection of Questions and Responses, Popular Patristics Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2003). A selection of the letters of Barsanuphius and John of Gaza. 

Cornelia Horn, trans., John Rufus: The Lives of Peter the Iberian, Theodosius of Jerusalem, and the Monk Romanus, Writings from the Greco-Roman World (Society of Biblical Literature, 2008).

Anna Silvas, The Asketikon of St. Basil the Great, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Studies

Jennifer L. Hevelone-Harper, Disciples of the Desert: Monks, Laity, and Spiritual Authority in Sixth-Century Gaza (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005). The first book-length study in English of the remarkable letters written by Barsanuphius and John of Gaza. The 800+ surviving letters allow us to see how two ancient masters practiced the fine art of spiritual direction

Augustine Holmes, A Life Pleasing to God: The Spirituality of the Rules of St. Basil, Cistercian Studies 189(Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2000). A valuable commentary on Basil’s monastic rules, prefaced with a 50-page introductory survey of Basil’s career and spirituality.

Hilarion Alfeyev, The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian, Cistercian Studies 175 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 2001).

John Binns, Ascetics and Ambassadors of Christ: the Monasteries of Palestine, 314-631, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). Sebastian Brock, Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life, Cistercian Studies 101 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987).

Sebastian Brock, The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual Vision of Ephrem the Syrian, Cistercian Studies 124 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publication, 1992). Pierre Canivet, Le monachisme syrien selon Théodoret de Cyr, Théologie historique 42 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1977).

Paul Jonathan Fedwick, ed., Basil of Caesarea: Christian, Humanist, Ascetic, 2 volumes, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1981).

Jean Gribomont, Saint Basile: évangile et église, Spiritualité orientale 36-37 (Bégrolles-en-Mauges: Abbaye de Bellefontaine, 1984). Sidney H. Griffith, “Asceticism in the Church of Syria: the Hermeneutics of Early Syrian Monasticism,” in Vincent Wimbush & Richard Valantasis, Asceticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 220-245.

Sidney H. Griffith, “Julian Saba, ‘Father of the Monks’ of Syria,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 2 (1994) 185-216. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Asceticism and Society in Crisis: John of Ephesus and the Lives of the Eastern Saints, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 18 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, “The Stylite’s Liturgy: Ritual and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 6 (1998):523-539. Yizhar Hirschfeld, The Judean Monasteries in the Byzantine Period (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992). A superb study of Palestinian monasticism

Cornelia B. Horn, Asceticism and Christological Controversy in Fifth-Century Palestine: The Career of Peter the Iberian, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).

John McGuckin, Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001).

Joseph Patrich, Sabas, Leader of Palestinian Monasticism: A Comparative Study in Eastern Monasticism, Fourth to Seventh Centuries (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1995). Marcus Plested, The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christan Tradition, Oxford Theological Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005). Columba Stewart, ‘Working the Earth of the Heart’: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to AD 431 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991). Arthur Voobus, A History of Asceticism in the Syrian Orient, 3 volumes, CSCO 184, 197, & 500 (Louvain: 1958, 1988). A classic, but dated. Some views have been challenged. Kallistos Ware, “The Origins of the Jesus Prayer: Diadochus, Gaza, Sinai,” in C. Jones, G. Wainwright, E. Yarnold, eds., The Study of Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 175-184.  

BENEDICT & THE LATIN WEST

 

Text & Translations:

RB 1980: the Rule of Benedict (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1980). Benedict’s Rule has served as the basis for Western monasticism for 1500 years. A work of spiritual and practical genius, notable for its humanity and its moderation (obvious when compared with its sources). This is the best translation and has the Latin text on facing pages.

Carolinne White, trans., Early Christian Lives, Penguin Classics (New York: Penguin Books, 1998. Contains a translation of the Latin version of the Life of Antony as well as fresh translations of Sulpicius Severus’ Life of Martin of Tours and the various lives by Jerome.

Studies:

David G. Hunter, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007). Excellent examination of the context of Western asceticism. It highlights well the controversies that gave rise to the view that continence was the superior form of Christian living.

Terrence G. Kardong, Benedict’s Rule: A Translation and Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1998).

George Lawless, Augustine of Hippo and His Monastic Rule (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).

Conrad Leyser, Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great, Oxford Historical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Conrad Leyser, “‘This Sainted Isle’: Panegyric, Nostalgia, and the Invention of Lerinian Monasticism,” in William E. Klingshirn and Mark Vessey,eds., The Limits of Ancient Christianity (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), 188-206.

Aldabert de Vogüé, Histoire littéraire du mouvement monastique dans l’antiquité (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1991-1998) 5 vol. to date. Despite the title the focus is on Latin literature.

Adalbert de Vogüé, The Rule of Saint Benedict: A Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary, Cistercian Studies 54, trans. John Baptist Hasbrouck (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1983).

Christianity In North Africa

David Cherry, Frontier and Society in Roman North Africa (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Leslie Dossey, Peasant and Empire in Christian North Africa, series: Transformation of the Classical Heritage(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010) hardcover, $60. NEW.

Yves Duval, Chrétiens d’Afrique à l’aube de la paix constantinienne: les premier échoes de la grande persécution(Paris: Institut d’Études Augustiniennes, 2000).

Serge Lancel, Carthage: A History, trans. A. Nevill (Oxford: Blackwell, 1995).

Claude Lepelley, Les cités de l’Afrique romaine au Bas-Empire. 2 vol. (Paris: Institut d'Études Augustiniennes, 1979-1981).

Pierre Monceaux, Histoire Littéraire de l’Afrique chrétienne, 7 vol. (Paris: Leroux, 1901-1923). A classic and unusually thorough survey, dated in many respects, but still very valuable.

Éric Rebillard, "The West (2): North Africa," in Susan Ashbrook Harvey & David G. Hunter, The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008),303-322.

J.B. Rives, Religion and Authority in Roman Carthage from Augustus to Constantine (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995).

Maureen A. Tilley, “North Africa,” in The Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol 1: Origins to Constantine, eds. Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances M. Young, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 381-396.  

TERTULLIAN: TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS  

Tertullian (c.160-225) was the first Latin theologian, a writer at once prolific and brilliant in both thought and style. Tertullian was a hardliner in many ways, and it is reported in ancient sources that his extremism led him, in the end, to move away from the great Church and towards the Montanists and their claims of new prophecy.

Texts: A critical edition of Tertullian's Latin works is in the Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, vol. 1 (Opera Catholica) and 2 (Opera montanista) (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954). Individual works are available in the Sources chretiennes (listed below). Also Ernest Evans did critical editions of a number of works, and these have parallel translation in English. 

Ad uxorem (To His Wife): C. Munier, ed., A son épouse, Sources chrétiennes 273 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1980).

Adversus Hermogenem (Against Hermogenes): F. Chapot, ed., Contre Hermogène, Sources chrétiennes 439 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1999).

Adversus Iudaeos: Hermann Tränkle, Q.S.F. Tertulliani: Adversus Iudaeos: Mit Einleitung und kritischem Kommentar (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner (1964).

Adversus Marcionem (Against Marcion): E. Evans, ed. and trans., Adversus Marcionem, 2 vols., Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972). Also: R. Braun, ed., Contre Marcion, 5 vols. Sources chrétiennes 365, 368, 399, 456, 483 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1990-2004).

Adversus Praxean (Against Praxeas): E. Evans, ed. and trans., Q. Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Adversus Praxean liber (ed. and trans. E. Evans; London: SPCK, 1948).

Adversus Valentinianos (Against Valentinus): J.-C. Fredouille, ed., Contre les Valentiniens, Sources chrétiennes 280-281 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1980–1981).

Apologeticum (Apology): T.R. Glover, ed. and trans. Apology, De spectaculis, Loeb Classical Library 250 (1931; repr.: London: Heinemann / Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 1-301.

De baptismo (On Baptism): R. F. Refoulé and M. Drouzy, eds., Traité du baptême, rev. ed., Sources chrétiennes 35 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2002). Also: Evans, ed., Tertullian’s Homily on Baptism (London: SPCK, 1964).

De carne Christi (On the Flesh of Christ): E. Evans, ed., Tertullian’s Treatise on the Incarnation(London: SPCK, 1956). Also: J.-P. Mahé, ed., La chair du Christ, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 216-217 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1975).

De carnis resurrectione (On the Resurrection of the Body): E. Evans, ed., Tertullian’s Treatise on the Resurrection (London: SPCK, 1960).

De cultu feminarum (On the Apparel of Women): M. Turcan, ed., La toilette des femmes, Sources chrétiennes 173 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1971).

De exhortatione castitatis (Exhortation to Chastity): C. Moreschini and J.-C. Fredouille, eds.,Exhortation à la chasteté, Sources chrétiennes 319 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1985).

De idololatria (On Idolatry): J. H. Waszink and J. C. M. van Winden, eds., De idololatria: Critical Text, Translation, and Commentary, Supplements to Vigilae Christianae 1 (Leiden and New York: Brill, 1987)

De monogamia (On Monogamy): P. Mattei, ed., Le mariage unique, Sources chrétiennes 343 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1988).

De oratione (On Prayer): E. Evans, ed., De oratione liber: Tract on the Prayer (London: SPCK, 1953).

De paenitentia (On Penance): C. Munier, ed., La pénitence, Sources chrétiennes 316 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1984).

De patientia (On Patience): J.-C. Fredouille, ed., De la patience, rev. ed., Sources chrétiennes 310 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1999).

De praescriptione haereticorum (On the Prescription of the Heretics): R. F. Refoulé and P. de Labriolle, eds., Traité de la prescription contre les hérétiques, Sources chrétiennes 46 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1957).

De pudicitia: C. Micaelli and C. Munier, eds., La pudicité, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 394-395 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1993).

De spectaculis (On the Games): M. Turcan, Les spectacles, Sources chrétiennes 332 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1986). Also: T.R. Glover, ed. and trans. Apology, De spectaculis, Loeb Classical Library 250 (1931; reprint: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 1-301.

De virginibus velandis (On the Veiling of Virgins): Eva Schulz-Flügel, ed., Paul Mattei, trans., Le voile des vierges, Sources chrétiennes 424 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1997).

Scorpiace: Giovanni Azzali Bernardelli, ed., Tertullian: Scorpiace, Biblioteca Patristica 14 (Florence: Nardini, 1990).

Translations:

Geoffrey D. Dunn, Tertullian, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2004). Dunn opens this volume with a lengthy introduction to Tertullian and to early North African Christianity and then follows with a fresh translation of three of Tertullian’s lesser-read texts: Against the Jews, Antidote for the Scorpion’s Sting, and The Veiling of Virgins.

R. Arbesmann, E.J. Daly, and E. A. Quain, eds., Tertullian: Disciplinary, Moral, and Ascetical Works, Fathers of the Church 40 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1959). This has translations of: To the Martyrs, Spectacles, The Apparel of Women, Prayer, Patience, The Veiling of Virgins, Flight in the Time of Persecution.

E.J. Daly, trans., Tertullian: Apologetical Works, Fathers of the Church 10 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1950), 7-126.

W.P. Le Saint, trans., Tertullian: Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy, Ancient Christian Writers 13 (Westminster: Newman, 1951).

W.P. Le Saint, trans., Tertullian: Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity, Ancient Christian Writers 28(Westminster: Newman, 1959).

Robert D. Sider, ed., Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2001).

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen: On the Lord’s Prayer, Popular Patristic Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004).

J.H. Waszink, trans., Tertullian: The Treatise against Hermogenes, Ancient Christian Writers 24 (Westminster: Newman, 1956).

TERTULLIAN: STUDIES

Timothy D. Barnes, Tertullian: a Historical and Literary Study, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). Unduly polemical, but full of fine insights on Tertullian, his world and his works.

Jérôme Alexandre, Une chair pour la gloire: l’anthropologie réaliste et mystique de Tertullien, Théologie Historique 115 (Paris: Beauchesne, 2001).

René Braun, Approches de Tertullien: Vingt-six études sur l’auteur et sur l’œuvre (1955–1990)(Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1992).

Geoffrey D. Dunn, Tertullian’s Aduersus Iudaeos: A Rhetorical Analysis, Patristic Monograph Series 19 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2008).

Eric Osborn, Tertullian, First Theologian of the West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

David Rankin, Tertullian and the Church (New York: Cambridge University, 1995).

Robert D. Sider, Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian, Oxford Theological Monographs (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).

J.H. Waszink, “Tertullian’s Principles and Methods of Exegesis,” in W.R. Schoedel and Robert L. Wilken, Early Christian Literature and the Classical Intellectual Tradition: In Honorem Robert M. Grant (Paris: Beauchesne, 1979), 17-31.

David E. Wilhite, Tertullian the African, Millennium Studies in the Culture and History of the First Millennium C.E. 14(Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007).

David Wright, “Tertullian,” in The Early Christian World, ed. P. F. Esler (New York: Routledge, 2000), 2:1027-1047.

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE: TEXTS & TRANSLATIONS

Cyprian of Carthage guided his church through one of the great traumas of early Christianity, the persecution of Decius in 250. As bishop, Cyprian skillfully used local councils to ensure consistency of discipline on the far side of the persecution and formulated views of the Church and of baptism that would influence Christianity for centuries. He would die as a martyr in 258 and become one of the heroes of the North African church.

Texts:

 For a critical edition of Cyprian's works, see Sancti Cypriani episcopi Opera in the Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 3-3e. Other Latin editions are as follows:

Ad Donatum (To Donatus) J. Molager, ed., A Donat et La vertu de patience, Sources chrétiennes 291 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1982).

Ad Demetrianum (To Demetrias) J.-C. Fredouille, A Démétrien, Sources chrétiennes 467 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2003).

De bono patientiae (On the Good of Patience) J. Molager, ed., A Donat et La vertu de patience, Sources chrétiennes 291 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1982).

De ecclesiae catholicae unitate (On the Unity of the Catholic Church): Paulo Siniscalco and Paul Mattei, eds., Cyprien de Carthage: L’unité de l’Église, Sources chrétiennes 500 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2006). Also: M. Bévenot, ed., De lapsis and De ecclesiae catholicae unitate, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971).

De lapsis (On the Lapsed): M. Bévenot, ed., De lapsis and De ecclesiae catholicae unitate, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971).

De opere et eleemosynis (On Good Works and Almsgiving): M. Poirier, ed., La bienfaisance et les aumônes, Sources chrétiennes 440 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1999).

Translations

Brent Allen, trans. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Church Select Treatises, Popular Patristics series (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007).

Brent Allen, trans., Cyprian of Carthage, On the Church: Select Letters, Popular Patristics series (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2006).

G.W. Clarke, trans. The Letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage, Ancient Christian Writers 43-44 & 46-47 (New York: Newman Press, 1984-1989). A fine translation with detailed commentary.

R. J. Deferarri, A. E. Keenan, M. H. Mahoney, and G. E. Conway, trans., Saint Cyprian: Treatises, Fathers of the Church 36 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1958).

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen: On the Lord’s Prayer, Popular Patristic Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004).

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE: STUDIES

J. Patout Burns, Cyprian the Bishop (New York: Routledge, 2002). An up-to-date book-length study of Cyprian, one of the most influential bishops and theologians of North Africa. Patout Burns, a scholar best known for his excellent studies of Augustine’s theology, brings great insight and lucidity to this analysis of the career and context of Cyprian.

Philip R. Amidon, “The Procedure of St. Cyprian’s Synods,” Vigiliae Christianae 37 (1983): 328-339; repr. in E. Ferguson, ed., Church, Ministry, and Organization in the Early Church Era, Studies in Early Christianity 13 (New York: Garland, 1993), 224-235.

H. Bakker, Paul Van Geest, and H. Van Loon, eds., Cyprian of Carthage: Studies in His Life, Language, and Thought, Late Antique History and Religion, vol. 3 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010) hardcover, € 65. NEW.

Charles A. Bobertz, “The Historical Context of Cyprian’s De Unitate,” Journal of Theological Studies 42.1 (1990): 107-111.

Allen Brent, The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order: Concepts and Images of Authority in Paganism and Early Christianity Before the Age of Cyprian, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 45 (Leiden: Brill, 1999).

Allen Brent, “Cyprian’s Reconstruction of the Martyr Tradition,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History53.2 (2002): 241-268.

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “The Carthaginian Synod of 251: Cyprian’s Model of Pastoral Ministry,” in I concili della cristianità occidentale secoli III-V: xxx Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiania, Roma 3-5 maggio 2001 (Rom: Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2002), pp. 235-257. 

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Cyprian of Carthage and the Episcopal Synod of Late 254,” Recherches des Études Augustiniennes 48 (2002): 229-247. 

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Cyprian and His Collegae: Patronage and the Episcopal Synod of 252,” Journal of Religious History 27.1 (2003): 1-13. 

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Censuimus: Cyprian and the Episcopal Synod of 253,” Latomus 3 (2004): 672-688.

Geoffrey D. Dunn, Cyprian and the Bishops of Rome: Questions of Papal Primacy in the Early Church, Early Christian Studies #11 (Strathfield, Australia: St. Paul’s, 2007).

Michael A. Fahey, Cyprian and the Bible: A Study in Third-Century Exegesis, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Biblischen Hermeutik 9 (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1971).

Stuart George Hall, “Ecclesiology Forged in the Wake of Persecution,” in Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances Young, eds., Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 1: Origins to Constantine(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 470-483.

Michael M. Sage, Cyprian, Patristic Monograph Series 1 (Cambridge, MA: Philadelphia Patristics Foundation, 1975).

WOMEN IN THE GRAECO-ROMAN WORLD: STUDIES

  Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian Lifestyles (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). This may be the first book to examine what social life was like for women once Christianity became the dominant religion. It examines the full range of issues and social facts: clothing and housing, marriage and divorce, child-bearing and celibacy, legal restraints and medical views.

Antti Arjava, Women and Law in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

Kate Cooper, The Virgin and the Bride: Idealized Womanhood in Late Antiquity (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996).

Georges Duby, Michelle Perot, Pauline Schmitt Pantel, eds., History of Women in the West: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994).

Elaine Fantham, Helene Peet Foley, Natalie Boymel Kampen, Sarah B. Pomeroy, eds., Women in the Classical World: Image and Text (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). A very important sourcebook with both texts & artwork, with valuable commentary.

Ian McAuslan & Peter Walcot, eds., Women in Antiquity, Greece and Rome Studies 3 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). Path-breaking essays over the last 2 decades.

Geoffrey Nathan, The Family in Late Antiquity: The Rise of Christianity and the Endurance of Tradition (New York: Routledge, 2000).

Sarah B. Pomeroy, Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity (New York: Schocken, 1975). Dated, but a celebrated path-breaking study.

Susan Treggiari, Roman Marriage: Iusti Coniuges from the Time of Cicero to the Time of Ulpian(New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).

Paul Veyne, ed., A History of Private Life: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987). Contains a fine overview of marriage in the Roman world.

WOMEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH: STUDIES

Ross Shepard Kraemer, “Women and Gender,” in The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Studies, ed. Susan Ashbrook Harvey & David G. Hunter (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 465-492. A fine overview of the state of the question.

Susanna Elm, Virgins of God: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Oxford Classical Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994). A path-breaking study of the way that households of ascetic women became gradually institutionalized by some of the leaders of 4th-century orthodoxy, Athanasius and Basil of Caesarea. This will reshape how historians understand the origins and development of monasticism.

D.L. Balch and C. Osiek, eds., Early Christian Families in Context: An Interdisciplinary Dialogue(Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003).

David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998). This has a valuable chapter on ascetic women in Alexandria and includes translations of some rare Athanasian texts.

Peter Brown, The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity(New York: Columbia University Press, 1988).

R.D. Butler, The New Prophecy and 'New Visions': Evidence of Montanism in the Passion of Perpetua and Felicitas(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2006).

Susan A. Calef, “Thecla ‘Tried and True’ and the Inversion of Romance,” in A Feminist Companion to the New Testament Apocrypha, ed. Amy-Jill Levine (London: T&T Clark, 2006), 163-185.

Joan Cecelia Campbell, Phoebe: Patron and Emissary, series: Paul's Social Network: Brothers and Sisters in Faith(Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009) paperback, $12. NEW.

Elizabeth A. Clark, Ascetic Piety and Women’s Faith: Essays on Late Ancient Christianity, Studies in Women and Religion, vol. 20 (Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 1986).

Elizabeth A. Clark, Jerome, Chrysostom, and Friends: Essays and Translations, 2nd ed. (New York: Edwin Mellen Press, 1982).

Elizabeth A. Clark, “Ascetic Renunciation and Feminine Advancement: A Paradox of Late Ancient Christianity,” Anglican Theological Review 63 (1981) 240-257; reprinted in Ascetic Piety and Women’s Faith.

Elizabeth A. Clark, “Ideology, History, and the Construction of ‘Woman’ in Late Ancient Christianity,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 2 (1994) 155-184.

Gillian Clark, “Women and Asceticism in Late Antiquity,” in Asceticism, ed. Vincent L. Wimbush (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995) 33-48.

Gillian Cloke, This Female Man of God: Women and Spiritual Power in the Patristic Age, AD 350-450 (New York: Routledge, 1995).

L. Stephanie Cobb, Dying to be Men: Gender and Language in Early Christian Martyr Texts (New York: Columbia University Press, 2008).

Lynda L. Coon, Sacred Fictions: Holy Women and Hagiography in Late Antiquity, Middle Ages Series (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997).

Stephen J. Davis, Cult of St. Thecla, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).

Stephen J. Davis, “Pilgrimage and the Cult of Saint Thecla in Late Antique Egypt,” in David Frankfurter, ed., Pilgrimage and Holy Space in Late Antique Egypt (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 303-340.

Susanna Elm, “Evagrius Ponticus’ Sententiae ad Virginem,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 45 (1991): 97-120.

Brown, Peter. The Body and Society: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.

Graham Gould, “Women in the Writings of the Fathers: Language, Belief and Reality,” in Women and the Church, ed. W.J. Sheils and D. Woods, Studies in Church History 27 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1990).

William Harmless, "Women in the Early Church: A Portrait Gallery," in Women and the Shaping of Catholicism: Women Through the Ages, ed. Richard W. Miller (Ligouri, 2009), 38-58.

Susan Ashbrook Harvey, "Women and Words: Texts by and about Women," in Cambridge History of Early Christian Literature, eds. Lewis Ayres, Andrew Louth, and Frances M. Young (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 382-390.

David G. Hunter, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovianist Controversy, Oxford Early Christian Studies series (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007).

David G. Hunter, "Clerical Celibacy and the Veiling of Virgins: New Boundaries in Late Ancient Christianity," in Limits of Ancient Christianity: Essays on Late Antique Thought and Culture in Honor of R.A. Markus, ed. William Klingshirn and Mark Vessey (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), 139-152.

E.D. Hunt, Holy Land Pilgrimage in the Later Roman Empire, AD 312-460 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984).

Scott F. Johnson, The Life and Miracles of Thekla: A Literary Study (Washington, DC: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2006).

Rebecca Krawiec, Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery: Egyptian Monasticism in Late Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

Amy-Jill Levine & Maria Mayo Robbins, eds., Feminist Companion to Patristic Literature (New York: T&T Clark, 2008).

Arnaldo Momigliano, “The Life of St. Macrina by Gregory of Nyssa,” in The Craft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester G. Starr, ed. John W. Eadie & Josiah Ober (Landham, MD: University Press of America, 1985) pp. 443-458.

Joyce E. Salisbury, Perpetua’s Passion: The Death and Memory of a Young Roman Woman (New York: Routledge, 1998).

David M. Scholer, ed., Women in Early Christianity, Studies in the Early Church, vol. 17 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1993). Reprints of major essays over the last 20 years. See especially:

• Anne Yarbrough, “Christianization in the Fourth Century: The Example of Roman Women,” 319-335; reprint from Church History 45 (1976) 149-165.

• J. Kevin Coyle, “The Fathers on Women and Women’s Ordination,” 117-167; reprint from Église et Théologie 9 (1978) 51-101.

Brent Shaw, “The Family in Late Antiquity: The Experience of Augustine,” Past and Present 115 (1987) 3-51.

Elizabeth Schussler Fiorenza, In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins (New York: Crossroad Books, 1986).

J.Warren Smith, “Macrina, Tamer of Horses and Healer of Souls: Grief and the Therapy of Hope in Gregory of Nyssa’s De Anima et Resurrectione,” Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 52 (2001) 37-60.

Bonnie Thurston, Women in the New Testament: Questions and Commentary, Companions to the New Testament (New York: Crossroad Publishing, 1998).

Benedicta Ward, “Apophthegmata Matrum,” Studia Patristica 16, ed. Elizabeth A. Livingstone (Berlin: TU, 1985): 63-66; reprint in Signs and Wonders (London: Variorum Reprints, 1992).

John Wilkinson, Egeria’s Travels (reprint: Aris & Phillips, 1999).

WOMEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH: TEXTS

Patricia Cox Miller, ed., Women in Early Christianity: Translations from Greek Texts (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2005). A comprehensive anthology of key texts, including excerpts from Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina, Palladius' portrait of Melania the Elder, and the anonymous Life of Olympias; rules for widows, catechumens, and deaconesses; accounts of women martyrs (e.g. Blandina) and of Montanist prophetesses; treatises on virginity (by Methodius, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom); panegyrics by Gregory of Nazianzus (on his mother and sister) and John Chrysostom) and denunciations ofsubintroductae and transvestites; theological materials on Eve and the Virgin Mary.

Ross Shepherd Kraemer, ed., Women’s Religions in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Sebastian Brock & Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, Transformation of the Classical Heritage 13 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987).

Elizabeth A. Clark, ed., Women in the Early Church, Message of the Fathers of the Church 13 (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1983).

Elizabeth A. Clark, St. Augustine on Marriage and Sexuality, Fathers of the Church, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press of America, 1997).

Elizabeth A. Clark & Diane F. Hatch, ed., The Golden Bough, The Oaken Cross: The Virgilian Cento of Faltonia Betitia Proba (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1981).

Bart D. Ehrman, After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). Contains the Passio Perpetuae and the Acts of Paul & Thecla.

Ross Kraemer & Mary Rose D'Angelo, eds., Women and Christian Origins (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Mary R. Lefkowitz & Maureen B. Fant, Women’s Life in Greece & Rome: A Sourcebook in Translation, 3rd ed.(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 2005). Valuable snippets of original sources.

Joan M. Petersen, ed., Handmaids of the Lord: Contemporary Descriptions of Feminine Asceticism in the First Six Christian Centuries, Cistercian Studies 143 (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1996).

Benedicta Ward, Harlots of the Desert: A Study of Repentance in Early Monastic Sources, Cistercian Studies(Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1987).

Vincent L. Wimbush, ed., Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990). Translations of valuable but hard-to-find sources, including some which deal with women (Ps-Athanasius’ Life of Blessed Syncletica, the Acts of Thomas).

Desert Fathers

Burton-Christie, Douglas. The Word in the Desert: Scripture and the Quest for Holiness in Early Christian Monasticism. New York: OUP, 1993

Chitty, Derwas. The Desert: A City. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1966.

Driscoll, Jeremy and Mark Sheridan, ed., Spiritual Progress: Studies in the Spirituality of Late Antiquity and Early Monasticism. Rome: Pontificio Ateneo S. Anselmo, 1994.

Evelyn-White, H. The Monasteries of Wadi ‘n Natrun, Part Two: The History of the Monasteries of Nitria and of Scetis. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition, 1932.

Goehring, James E. Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.

Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981.

Spidlik, Tomas. The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook, Cistercian Studies 79. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1986.

 

Cyprian

Cyprian of Carthage guided his church through one of the great traumas of early Christianity, the persecution of Decius in 250. As bishop, Cyprian skillfully used local councils to ensure consistency of discipline on the far side of the persecution and formulated views of the Church and of baptism that would influence Christianity for centuries. He would die as a martyr in 258 and become one of the heroes of the North African church.

Texts

For a critical edition of Cyprian's works, see Sancti Cypriani episcopi Opera in the Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 3-3e. Other Latin editions are as follows:

Ad Donatum (To Donatus) J. Molager, ed., A Donat et La vertu de patience, Sources chrétiennes 291 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1982).

Ad Demetrianum (To Demetrias) J.-C. Fredouille, A Démétrien, Sources chrétiennes 467 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2003).

De bono patientiae (On the Good of Patience) J. Molager, ed., A Donat et La vertu de patience, Sources chrétiennes 291 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1982).

De ecclesiae catholicae unitate (On the Unity of the Catholic Church): Paulo Siniscalco and Paul Mattei, eds., Cyprien de Carthage: L’unité de l’Église, Sources chrétiennes 500 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2006). Also: M. Bévenot, ed., De lapsis and De ecclesiae catholicae unitate, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971).

De lapsis (On the Lapsed): M. Bévenot, ed., De lapsis and De ecclesiae catholicae unitate, Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1971).

De opere et eleemosynis (On Good Works and Almsgiving): M. Poirier, ed., La bienfaisance et les aumônes, Sources chrétiennes 440 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1999).

Burns, J. Patout. Cyprian the Bishop. London: Routledge, 2002.

Cyprian. On the church : select treatises of St. Cyprian of Carthage. Trans. by Allen Brent. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2006.

Saxer, Victor. Vie liturgique et quotidienne ï Carthage vers le milieu du IIIe siïcle. Le tïmoignage de saint Cyprien et de ses contemporains d’Afrique. Cittï del Vaticano; Roma, Pontificio Istituto di archeologia cristiana, 1969.

Translations:

Brent Allen, trans. Cyprian of Carthage, On the Church: Select Treatises, Popular Patristics series (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2007).

Brent Allen, trans., Cyprian of Carthage, On the Church: Select Letters, Popular Patristics series (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2006).

G.W. Clarke, trans. The Letters of St. Cyprian of Carthage, Ancient Christian Writers 43-44 & 46-47 (New York: Newman Press, 1984-1989). A fine translation with detailed commentary.

R. J. Deferarri, A. E. Keenan, M. H. Mahoney, and G. E. Conway, trans., Saint Cyprian: Treatises, Fathers of the Church 36 (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1958).

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen: On the Lord’s Prayer, Popular Patristic Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004).

 CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE: STUDIES

J. Patout Burns, Cyprian the Bishop (New York: Routledge, 2002). An up-to-date book-length study of Cyprian, one of the most influential bishops and theologians of North Africa. Patout Burns, a scholar best known for his excellent studies of Augustine’s theology, brings great insight and lucidity to this analysis of the career and context of Cyprian.

Philip R. Amidon, “The Procedure of St. Cyprian’s Synods,” Vigiliae Christianae 37 (1983): 328-339; repr. in E. Ferguson, ed., Church, Ministry, and Organization in the Early Church Era, Studies in Early Christianity 13 (New York: Garland, 1993), 224-235.

H. Bakker, Paul Van Geest, and H. Van Loon, eds., Cyprian of Carthage: Studies in His Life, Language, and Thought, Late Antique History and Religion, vol. 3 (Leuven: Peeters, 2010) hardcover, € 65. NEW.

Charles A. Bobertz, “The Historical Context of Cyprian’s De Unitate,” Journal of Theological Studies 42.1 (1990): 107-111.

Allen Brent, The Imperial Cult and the Development of Church Order: Concepts and Images of Authority in Paganism and Early Christianity Before the Age of Cyprian, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 45 (Leiden: Brill, 1999).

Allen Brent, “Cyprian’s Reconstruction of the Martyr Tradition,” Journal of Ecclesiastical History53.2 (2002): 241-268.

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “The Carthaginian Synod of 251: Cyprian’s Model of Pastoral Ministry,” in I concili della cristianità occidentale secoli III-V: xxx Incontro di studiosi dell’antichità cristiania, Roma 3-5 maggio 2001 (Rom: Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum, 2002), pp. 235-257. 

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Cyprian of Carthage and the Episcopal Synod of Late 254,” Recherches des Études Augustiniennes 48 (2002): 229-247. 

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Cyprian and His Collegae: Patronage and the Episcopal Synod of 252,” Journal of Religious History 27.1 (2003): 1-13. 

Geoffrey D. Dunn, “Censuimus: Cyprian and the Episcopal Synod of 253,” Latomus 3 (2004): 672-688.

Geoffrey D. Dunn, Cyprian and the Bishops of Rome: Questions of Papal Primacy in the Early Church, Early Christian Studies #11 (Strathfield, Australia: St. Paul’s, 2007).

Michael A. Fahey, Cyprian and the Bible: A Study in Third-Century Exegesis, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Biblischen Hermeutik 9 (Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1971).

Stuart George Hall, “Ecclesiology Forged in the Wake of Persecution,” in Margaret M. Mitchell and Frances Young, eds., Cambridge History of Christianity, Vol. 1: Origins to Constantine(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 470-483.

Michael M. Sage, Cyprian, Patristic Monograph Series 1 (Cambridge, MA: Philadelphia Patristics Foundation, 1975).

Cyril of Alexandria

Cyril of Alexandria. Commentary on the Gospel According to John Vol. I; John I-VIII. (LFC 43), Oxford: James Parker & Co. 1874.

________.Commentary on the Gospel of Luke. Astoria, NY: Studion Publishers, Inc.

________.A Commentary Upon the Gospel According to St. Luke by Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria. Translated by R. Payne-Smith. Studion Publishers, 1983.

_______. St Cyril of Alexandria: Letters 1—50, FC 76. trans by J.I. McEnerney. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1987.

_______. St Cyril of Alexandria: Letters 51—110, FC 77. trans by J.I. McEnerney. Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1987.

_______.In Mattheum. Edited by J.P. Migne. Paris: D’Ambroisi, 1859.

_______.St. Cyril of Alexandria: the Christological Controversy: Its History, Theology and Texts, Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae 23. trans. by, John A. McGuckin. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1994.

_______. On the Unity of Christ. John A. McGuckin, trans. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995.

________. A Commentary upon the Gospel according to S. Luke by S. Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, 2 vols. Trans. by R. Payne Smith. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1859; reprinted in one volume, New York: Studion, 1983.

_______. Commentary on the Gospel according to St John by S. Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria, vol. I. Trans. by P.E. Pusey. Oxford: James Parker, 1874; Randeli, T. (trans.), vol. II London: Walter Smith, 1885.

_______. S. Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria: Five Tomes against Nestorius, Scbolia on the Incarnation, Christ is One, Fragments against Diodore of Tarsus, Theodore of Mopsuestia, the Synousiasts. Trans. by P.E. Pusey. Oxford: James Parker, 1881.

________.Select Letters, edited and translated by Lionel R. Wickham. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.

Keating, Danieland Thomas G. Weinandy, eds. The Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: a Critical Appreciation. London: T & T Clark, 2003.

Kerrigan, Alexander. St. Cyril of Alexandria: Interpreter of the Old Testament, Roma: Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1952.

Norris, Richard A. ed., The Christological Controversy, Sources of Early Christian Thought. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980.

Russell, Norman. Cyril of Alexandria. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Weinandy, Thomas G. and Daniel A. Keating, eds. The Theology of St. Cyril of Alexandria: A critical Appreciation. New York: T7T Clark Ltd., 2003.

Wilken, Robert Louis. Judaism and the Early Christian Mind: A Study of Cyril of Alexandria’s Exegesis and Theology, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1971

 

Didymus the Blind

Didymus. De spiritu sancto = ïber den Heiligen Geist. Turnhout: Brepols, 2004.

________. Psalmenkommentar Teil I – V, (Papyrologische Texte und Abhandlungen) edited by M. Gronewald. Bonn, 1969.

_______. Commentary on Zechariah. Trans. by Robert C. Hill. Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, c2006.

________. Sur Zacharie : texte inïdit d'aprïs un papyrus e Toura, SC 84. Introduced and edited by Louis Doutreleau. Paris: ïditions du Cerf, 1962.

Bienert, Wolfgang A., Allegoria und Anagoge bei Didymos dem Blinden von Alexandria. Berlin ; New York : de Gruyter, 1972.

Layton, Richard. Didymus the Blind and His Circle in Late-Antique Alexandria: Virtue and Narrative in Biblical Scholarship. University of Illinois Press: Chicago, 2004.

 

Fulgentius

Eno, Robert B., ed. FulgentiusThe Fathers of the Church Series, Vol. 95, CUAP, 1997.

Ferguson, Thomas S. Visita nos : reception, rhetoric, and prayer in a North African monastery. New York: P. Lang, c1999.

Lapeyre, Gabriel G., L’ancienne ïglise de Carthage: ïtudes et documents. Paris, Beauchesne, 1932.

 

John Cassian

Cassian, John, The Conferences, trans. Boniface Ramsey, Ancient Christian Writers 57. New York: Paulist Press, 1997.

_______.Cassian on Chastity. Introduction and trans. by Terrence G. Kardong. Richardton, N.D.: Assumption Abbey Press, c1993.

_______. The Institutes. Trans. and annotated by Boniface Ramsey. New York: Newman Press, c2000.

_______. Saint John Cassian on prayer. Trans. by A.M. Casiday. Oxford : SLG Press, c2006.

Casiday, A.M.C. Tradition and Theology in St John Cassian. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Chadwick, Owen. John Cassian. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1950.

Driver, Steven D. John Cassian and the Reading of Egyptian monastic culture. New York : Routledge, 2002.

Stewart, Columba. Cassian the Monk. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

 

Tertullian

Tertullian (c.160-225) was the first Latin theologian, a writer at once prolific and brilliant in both thought and style. Tertullian was a hardliner in many ways, and it is reported in ancient sources that his extremism led him, in the end, to move away from the great Church and towards the Montanists and their claims of new prophecy.

Texts

A critical edition of Tertullian's Latin works is in the Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina, vol. 1 (Opera Catholica) and 2 (Opera montanista) (Turnhout: Brepols, 1954). Individual works are available in the Sources chretiennes (listed below). Also Ernest Evans did critical editions of a number of works, and these have parallel translation in English. 

Ad uxorem (To His Wife): C. Munier, ed., A son épouse, Sources chrétiennes 273 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1980).

Adversus Hermogenem (Against Hermogenes): F. Chapot, ed., Contre Hermogène, Sources chrétiennes 439 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1999).

Adversus Iudaeos: Hermann Tränkle, Q.S.F. Tertulliani: Adversus Iudaeos: Mit Einleitung und kritischem Kommentar (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner (1964).

Adversus Marcionem (Against Marcion): E. Evans, ed. and trans., Adversus Marcionem, 2 vols., Oxford Early Christian Texts (Oxford: Clarendon, 1972). Also: R. Braun, ed., Contre Marcion, 5 vols. Sources chrétiennes 365, 368, 399, 456, 483 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1990-2004).

Adversus Praxean (Against Praxeas): E. Evans, ed. and trans., Q. Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Adversus Praxean liber (ed. and trans. E. Evans; London: SPCK, 1948).

Adversus Valentinianos (Against Valentinus): J.-C. Fredouille, ed., Contre les Valentiniens, Sources chrétiennes 280-281 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1980–1981).

Apologeticum (Apology): T.R. Glover, ed. and trans. Apology, De spectaculis, Loeb Classical Library 250 (1931; repr.: London: Heinemann / Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 1-301.

De baptismo (On Baptism): R. F. Refoulé and M. Drouzy, eds., Traité du baptême, rev. ed., Sources chrétiennes 35 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 2002). Also: Evans, ed., Tertullian’s Homily on Baptism (London: SPCK, 1964).

De carne Christi (On the Flesh of Christ): E. Evans, ed., Tertullian’s Treatise on the Incarnation(London: SPCK, 1956). Also: J.-P. Mahé, ed., La chair du Christ, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 216-217 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1975).

De carnis resurrectione (On the Resurrection of the Body): E. Evans, ed., Tertullian’s Treatise on the Resurrection(London: SPCK, 1960).

De cultu feminarum (On the Apparel of Women): M. Turcan, ed., La toilette des femmes, Sources chrétiennes 173 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1971).

De exhortatione castitatis (Exhortation to Chastity): C. Moreschini and J.-C. Fredouille, eds.,Exhortation à la chasteté, Sources chrétiennes 319 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1985).

De idololatria (On Idolatry): J. H. Waszink and J. C. M. van Winden, eds., De idololatria: Critical Text, Translation, and Commentary, Supplements to Vigilae Christianae 1 (Leiden and New York: Brill, 1987)

De monogamia (On Monogamy): P. Mattei, ed., Le mariage unique, Sources chrétiennes 343 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1988).

De oratione (On Prayer): E. Evans, ed., De oratione liber: Tract on the Prayer (London: SPCK, 1953).

De paenitentia (On Penance): C. Munier, ed., La pénitence, Sources chrétiennes 316 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1984).

De patientia (On Patience): J.-C. Fredouille, ed., De la patience, rev. ed., Sources chrétiennes 310 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1999).

De praescriptione haereticorum (On the Prescription of the Heretics): R. F. Refoulé and P. de Labriolle, eds., Traité de la prescription contre les hérétiques, Sources chrétiennes 46 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1957).

De pudicitia: C. Micaelli and C. Munier, eds., La pudicité, 2 vols., Sources chrétiennes 394-395 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1993).

De spectaculis (On the Games): M. Turcan, Les spectacles, Sources chrétiennes 332 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1986). Also: T.R. Glover, ed. and trans. Apology, De spectaculis, Loeb Classical Library 250 (1931; reprint: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960), 1-301.

De virginibus velandis (On the Veiling of Virgins): Eva Schulz-Flügel, ed., Paul Mattei, trans., Le voile des vierges, Sources chrétiennes 424 (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1997).

Scorpiace: Giovanni Azzali Bernardelli, ed., Tertullian: Scorpiace, Biblioteca Patristica 14 (Florence: Nardini, 1990).

Translations

Geoffrey D. Dunn, Tertullian, Early Church Fathers (New York: Routledge, 2004). Dunn opens this volume with a lengthy introduction to Tertullian and to early North African Christianity and then follows with a fresh translation of three of Tertullian’s lesser-read texts: Against the Jews, Antidote for the Scorpion’s Sting, and The Veiling of Virgins.

R. Arbesmann, E.J. Daly, and E. A. Quain, eds., Tertullian: Disciplinary, Moral, and Ascetical Works, Fathers of the Church 40 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1959). This has translations of: To the Martyrs, Spectacles, The Apparel of Women, Prayer, Patience, The Veiling of Virgins, Flight in the Time of Persecution.

E.J. Daly, trans., Tertullian: Apologetical Works, Fathers of the Church 10 (New York: Fathers of the Church, 1950), 7-126.

W.P. Le Saint, trans., Tertullian: Treatises on Marriage and Remarriage: To His Wife, An Exhortation to Chastity, Monogamy, Ancient Christian Writers 13 (Westminster: Newman, 1951).

W.P. Le Saint, trans., Tertullian: Treatises on Penance: On Penitence and On Purity, Ancient Christian Writers 28(Westminster: Newman, 1959).

Robert D. Sider, ed., Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire: The Witness of Tertullian(Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2001).

Alistair Stewart-Sykes, ed., Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen: On the Lord’s Prayer, Popular Patristic Series (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004).

J.H. Waszink, trans., Tertullian: The Treatise against Hermogenes, Ancient Christian Writers 24 (Westminster: Newman, 1956).

TERTULLIAN: STUDIES

Timothy D. Barnes, Tertullian: a Historical and Literary Study, rev. ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985). Unduly polemical, but full of fine insights on Tertullian, his world and his works.

Jérôme Alexandre, Une chair pour la gloire: l’anthropologie réaliste et mystique de Tertullien, Théologie Historique 115 (Paris: Beauchesne, 2001).

René Braun, Approches de Tertullien: Vingt-six études sur l’auteur et sur l’œuvre (1955–1990)(Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1992).

Geoffrey D. Dunn, Tertullian’s Aduersus Iudaeos: A Rhetorical Analysis, Patristic Monograph Series 19 (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 2008).

Eric Osborn, Tertullian, First Theologian of the West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

David Rankin, Tertullian and the Church (New York: Cambridge University, 1995).

Robert D. Sider, Ancient Rhetoric and the Art of Tertullian, Oxford Theological Monographs (London: Oxford University Press, 1971).

J.H. Waszink, “Tertullian’s Principles and Methods of Exegesis,” in W.R. Schoedel and Robert L. Wilken, Early Christian Literature and the Classical Intellectual Tradition: In Honorem Robert M. Grant (Paris: Beauchesne, 1979), 17-31.

David E. Wilhite, Tertullian the African, Millennium Studies in the Culture and History of the First Millennium C.E. 14(Berlin / New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007).

David Wright, “Tertullian,” in The Early Christian World, ed. P. F. Esler (New York: Routledge, 2000), 2:1027-1047.

Dunn, Geoffrey D. Tertullian. London: Routlege, 2004.

Osborn, Eric. Tertullian, First Theologian of the West. Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Rankin, David. Tertullian and the Church. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

Tertullian. Adversus Marcionem. Edited and translated by Ernest Evans. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1972.

_______. Adversus Praxean liber = : Tertullian’s treatise against Praxeas. The text edited, with an introduction, translation, and commentary by Ernest Evans. London: S.P.C.K., 1948.

______. Christian and Pagan in the Roman Empire : the witness of Tertullian. Edited by Robert D. Sider. Washington, D.C. : Catholic University of America Press, c2001.

_______. De baptismo liber : homily on baptism. The text edited with an introduction, translation and commentary by Ernest Evans. London: SPCK, 1964.

_______. Tertullian’s Treatise on the incarnation. Trans. by Ernest Evans. London: S.P.C.K., 1956.

_______. Tertullian’s Treatise on the resurrection. Trans. by Ernest Evans. London: S.P.C.K., 1960.

______. De idololatria : critical text, translation, and commentary. Edited and trans. by J.H. Waszink and J.C.M. van Winden. New York: E.J. Brill, 1987.

_______. Disciplinary, moral, and ascetical works. Trans. by Rudolph Arbesmann ... [et.al.] Washington: Catholic University Press, 1959.

_______. On the Lord’s prayer / Tertullian, Cyprian, Origen. Trans. and introduced by Alistair Stewart-Sykes. Crestwood: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004.

_______. Tertullian. Trans. by Geoffrey D. Dunn. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Whilhite, David E. Tertullian the AfricanAn Anthropological Reading of Tertullian’s Context and Identities. New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2007.

David Wright, “Tertullian,” in The Early Christian World, ed. P. F. Esler (New York: Routledge, 2000), 2:1027-1047.

 

Origen

Ayres, Lewis and Gareth Jones, eds., Christian Origins: Theology, Rhetoric, and Community. New York: Routledge, 1998.

Balthasar, Hans Urs von. Origen: Spirit and Fire. Translated by Robert J. Daley. Washington: CUAP, 1984.

Crouzel, Henri. Origen. Translated by A. S. Worrall. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989.

________. Origïne et la connaissance mystique. Paris: Desclïe de Brouwer, 1961.

________. Thïologie de l'image de Dieu chez Origïne. Paris: Aubier, 1956.

Origen. An Exhortation to Martyrdom, Prayer First Principles. Translated by Rowan A. Greer. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.

_________.Contra Celsum. Edited by Henry Chadwick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953, 1980.

________.Commentaire sur S. jean, vol. 5, ed. Cecile Blanc, SC385, Paris, Cerf, 1992, 324-44.

________.Commentary on the Gospel according to John, FC 80, 89. Trans. by Ronald E. Heine. Washington: CUAP, 1989-1993.

________.Commentary on Matthew. ANF 8. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1995.

________.Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans: Books 1-5, FC 103. Trans. by Thomas P. Scheck. Washington: CUAP, 2001.

________.Homilies on Genesis and Exodus. Trans. by Ronald E. Heine. Washington: CUAP, 1982.

________.Homilies on Jeremiah, Homily on 1 Kings 28. Translated by John Clark Smith. Washington, D.C.: CUAP, 1998.

________.Homilies on Joshua. Trans. by Barbara J. Bruce and edited by Cynthia White. Washington: CUAP, 2002.

________.Homilies on Leviticus 1-16. Trans. [and edited] by Gary Wayne Barkley. Washington: CUAP, 1990.

________.Homilies on Luke; and, Fragments on Luke. Trans. by Joseph T. Lienhard. Washington: CUAP, 1996.

________.On First Principles; being Koetschau's text of the De principiis, translated into English, together with an introduction and notes by G.W. Butterworth. Introduction to the Torchbook edition by Henri De Lubac. Gloucester, MA: P. Smith, 1973, c1966.

________.The Song of Songs: Commentary and Homilies. Translated and annotated by R. P. Lawson. Westminster, MD.: Newman Press, 1957.

_______.Treatise on the Passover and Dialogue with Heraclides ACW 51. Trans. Robert J. Daly. New York: Paulist Press, 1992.

Clark, Elizabeth A. The Origenist Controversy: The Cultural Construction of an Early Christian Debate. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.

_______.Reading Renunciation: Asceticism and Scripture in Early Christianity. Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, 1999.

Daley, Brian E. S.J. “Origen’s De Principiis: A Guide to the Principles of Christian Scriptural Interpretation,” in Christian Origins: Theology, Rhetoric, and Community, ed. Lewis Ayres and Gareth Jones. New York: Rutledge, 1998.

Edwards, Mark Julian. Origen against Plato. Aldershot, Hants, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2002

Gorday, Peter. Principles of patristic exegesis : Romans 9-11 in Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine. New York : E. Mellen Press, c1983.

Heisey, Nancy R. Origen, the Egyptian : a literary and historical consideration of the Egyptian background in Origen’s writings on martyrdom. Nairobi, Kenya : Paulines Publications Africa, 2000.

Kannengiesser, Charles and William L. Petersen, eds., Origen of Alexandria: His World and Legacy. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1988.

McGuckin, John Anthony. The Westminster handbook to Origen. Louisville, Ky. : Westminster John Knox Press, c2004.

Nautin, Pierre. Origïne : sa vie et son oeuvre. Paris: Beauchesne, 1977.

Torjesen, Karen Jo. Hermeneutical Procedure and Theological Method in Origen’s Exegesis. New York: de Gruyter, 1985.

Trigg, Joseph W. Origen. New York : Routledge, 1998

 

______. Origen: The Bible and Philosophy in the Third Century Church. John Knox Press, Atlanta, 1983.