Posted on 01/08/2020 6:36:01 AM PST by Antoninus
These books contain important accounts and teachings from the early Church that every Christian should at least be familiar with. Unfortunately, many of these ancient resources are unknown to Christians today.
How many of these have you read? Take the challenge here: Fifty Works From the Early Church That Every Christian Should Read
If you have read less than 5 of these, you rank as a catechumen.
If you have read at least 5, you are a novice.
If you have read at least 10, you are an acolyte.
If you have read at least 20, you would qualify as a sub-deacon.
If you have read at least 30, you could be a deacon.
If you have read up to 40, you should consider the priesthood.
If you have read all 50, we may declare you a bishop by acclamation.
I enjoyed compiling this list because the process revealed how lacking I am in my own patristic reading. For every one of these works I've read, there seem to be a dozen more that I haven't!
1. The Douay-Rheims Bible (Various Catholic Translators)
2. The Shepherd of Hermas (F. Crombie, Translator)
3. Epistle of St. Barnabas (Apostolic Fathers, Vol. 2) (Bart D. Ehrman (Translator))
4. Epistles of Sts. Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch (James A. Kleist, Translator)
5. The Didache
6. Polycarp's Epistle to the Philippians (Alexander Roberts (Translator))
7. Embassy for the Christians (Athenagoras)
8. The Writings of Saint Justin Martyr (Thomas B. Falls, Translator)
9. I Am a Christian: Authentic Accounts of Christian Martyrdom and Persecution From the Ancient Sources (Anthony Schiavo, ed.)
10. Apology and Spectacles (Tertullian)
11. The Paedagogus (Christ the Educator) (St. Clement of Alexandria)
12. Against Celsus (Origen)
13. Against Heresies (Irenaeus of Lyons)
14. The Complete Works of Saint Cyprian of Carthage (St. Cyprian)
15. Letters and Treatises (Dionysius of Alexandria)
16. The Octavius (Minucius Felix)
17. Refutation of All Heresies (Hippolytus of Rome)
18. Life of the Blessed Emperor Constantine
19. The Divine Institutes (Lactantius)
20. Eusebius: History of the Church
21. Life of Saint Anthony of Egypt by Saint Athanasius
22. On the Incarnation (St. Athanasius)
23. Apocriticus (Macarius Magnes)
24. Lausaic History (Palladius of Aspuna)
25. The Desert Fathers (Sayings of the Early Christian Monks)
26. Life of Saint Martin of Tours (Sulpitius Severus)
27. The Pilgrimage of Egeria (Anne McGowan (Translator))
28. The Ecclesiastical History (Hermias Sozomen)
29. The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates (Socrates Scholasticus)
30. On the Duties of the Clergy (St. Ambrose of Milan)
31. The Life of Saint Ambrose (Paulinus of Milan)
32. Select Orations (St. Gregory Nazianzen)
33. Exegetical Homilies on the Hexameron, Psalms, Etc. (Saint Basil the Great)
34. On the Soul and Resurrection (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
35. Saint Augustine--Confessions
36. Saint Augustine's City of God
37. On Marriage and Family Life (St. John Chyrsostom)
38. Psychomachia (Aurelius Prudentius Clemens)
39. The Life of Saint Augustine (Possidius of Calama)
40. The Confession & Letter to Coroticus (Saint Patrick)
41. Seven Books of History Against the Pagans (Orosius)
42. The Life of Saint Simeon Stylites (Frederick Lent, Translator) 43. On Illustrious Men (St. Jerome)
44. History of the Vandal Persecution (Victor of Vita)
45. The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis) (Louise Ropes Loomis (Ed.))
46. Ecclesiastical History (Evagrius Scholasticus)
47. The Paschale Chronicle, AD 284-628 (Michael Whitby, Translator)
48. The Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great
49. Lives of the Fathers (St. Gregory of Tours)
50. Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Josephus should get an honorable mention, even though he’s not “early church”.
Ha! I rank an acolyte.
Do you think Frankie would allow a Lutheran to light the candles in St. Peter’s?
No “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” or “The Philokalia”?
Almost an acolyte here. I am saving the list. Thanks!
It is the only infallible collection of writings we have available.
The rest are commentaries.
If you are not inclined to read fifty works you can forego all that by just reading the New Testament; it's all in there.
#1 on your list (The Douay-Rheims Bible (Various Catholic Translators)).
Please note that this translation of the Bible was from the late 16th century early 17th century and thus hardly a work of the early church fathers. Also notice too that the DR translation has been revised over the years. Most common edition in use today is that which was revised by Bishop Challoner mid-18th century.
One other thing, the DR was translated into English from Jerome’s Latin Vulgate from the 4th century, not the Hebrew OT or Greek NT. Jerome made a few mistakes which are carried over to the DR, but the main thing to comprehend is that the DR is a translation of a translation. Even the Challoner version suffers from the same problem that the Geneva or other reformation era English translations have, the “early modern English” used is a bit out of date to 21st century readers.
The ECFs, which make up the bulk of your list, while written during the Patristic era are available today as more modern English translations and thus are easier to comprehend.
Happy reading!
Should include Agustine’s three anti-Pelagian treatises.
Thanks, adding to my reading list.
Thanks for the posting
No, no, no. Beinst these Fathers were hammers of heresy, I guess Pope Francis the Humble would blast you as a rigid fundamentalist with some underlying spiritual imbalance/psychopathy, and send you to the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association to get your mind right.
Campaign ribbons.
But I'd have to attain a Methuselan llfespan to read all these--- at the pokey rate I'm going.
Hail to my betters, hail!
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