Explore the Christian
intellectual tradition.

by time

Every author set by lifespan, every work by date, so you can see who wrote alongside whom and follow a tradition across the centuries. Click an author for relevant works, or a work for where to read or hear it, and build a reading list as you go.

by influence

Choose a writer and trace the authors who formed them on one side and those they formed on the other, or step back to the whole web of connections laid out across time. Links are added during research and appear once approved. Most name the work the influence runs through.

By word

The words these writers use, explained. Theosis, justification, lectio divina, the dark night: each term in plain language, with where the traditions differ, the Scripture behind it, and related terms, and a link to search the library for it. A place to start when a word in a title or a description is new to you.

by subject

Search every title, description, author and pen name for a subject, then narrow by type of work, era, tradition, original language, difficulty, or what you can read free today. A search for *prayer* or *martyrdom* finds the works themselves, not just the titles that happen to contain the word.

Who they were, and where to begin.

Every author has a page: a biography, their dates and tradition, everything they wrote in the library, and Start here, which names the first work to read and why. Where the lines of influence are known, they are on the page too.

Should I read this?

Every work has a page that says who it is for, how long it is, and how demanding, in words rather than just a score. Beneath that, every edition we know of with a note on when a translation is easier or harder than the work itself.

Classics, typeset for reading.

Public-domain works hosted on the site in full, set for comfortable reading with a table of contents and your own text size, typeface and theme remembered between visits. Where more than one translation exists, switch between them on the page.

Curated paths through the library.

Reading lists gathered around a question or a theme. Each lists its works and authors by date, with difficulty, length and where to read them, and can be added to your reading list or shown on the Timeline in one click.