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Jerome · 376 · Treatise
For anyone: a ten-page desert tale, Jerome's first work, about the hermit Antony went to find; the easiest door into Jerome and into the monastic literature of the fourth century.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 376–378 · Commentary
For readers who use the Psalms in prayer and want their arrangement read as a path of ascent; a long, systematic early work for the patient.
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Ambrose of Milan · 377 · Treatise
Ambrose of Milan composed this treatise on virginity in 377, addressing the growing movement of consecrated virgins in the early Church. Written as both theological instruction and practical guidance, the work emerged…
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Ambrose of Milan · 378 · Treatise
De Excessu Fratris is Ambrose of Milan's funeral oration for his brother Satyrus, delivered in 378 after Satyrus died unexpectedly while serving as a provincial governor. The work emerged from Ambrose's profound…
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Jerome · 379 · Treatise
For students of the aftermath of the Arian crisis: may bishops who signed the Arian creed of 359 be received back? A dialogue, Jerome's first theological work, and readable.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Treatise
For readers interested in what it means to be made in God's image, body and mind together; the richest Christian treatment of human nature before Augustine, and readable without special training.
Read hereFreeOriginal languageHard
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Gregory of Nyssa · 379 · Treatise
For readers of Basil's Hexaemeron who want its sequel: Gregory's defence of his brother's six days and his own account of creation as a single act unfolding in order; for students more than general readers.
FreeOriginal languageHard
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 379–381 · Sermon
For anyone studying the doctrine of the Trinity, and for a reader who wants the one work of Gregory's that matters most; not a first book for a newcomer to the fathers.
Read hereFreeAudioOriginal languageHard
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Gregory of Nyssa · 380–383 · Treatise
For students of the Arian controversy and of how the Cappadocians argued about God's names and nature; not a work to read through, and not for a first meeting with Gregory.
FreeOriginal languageHard
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Jerome · 380 · Book
For historians: Jerome's Latin version of Eusebius's chronological tables, carried on to 378 with his own entries on the Latin writers and the emperors; the backbone of medieval chronology, and the one history book he wrote.
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Dogmatic Treatises Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Volume V: Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, etc.
Gregory of Nyssa · 380–395 · Book
For readers who want the whole 1893 English Gregory in one place; a collection, not a work, and better entered through its individual treatises.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 380–394 · Commentary
For readers drawn to the mystical reading of the Song as the soul's endless ascent into God; his most searching spiritual work, best read after the Life of Moses and not as an introduction.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 380 · Treatise
For anyone, and the place to start: a brother's short, affectionate account of his sister's life and death, and the first portrait of a woman as teacher and ascetic in Christian literature.
Read hereFreeAudioOriginal languageModerate
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On Pilgrimages Epistula II: De iis qui adeunt Hierosolyma
Gregory of Nyssa · 380–386 · Letter
For readers curious about early Christian pilgrimage and a bishop who had been to Jerusalem and advised others not to go; a short letter, often quoted.
FreeAudioOriginal languageModerate
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Gregory of Nyssa · 380–390 · Treatise
For anyone who wants the divinity of the Son and the Spirit argued in a few pages for a soldier; the shortest of his dogmatic works and the easiest.
FreeAudioOriginal languageModerate
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Gregory of Nyssa · 380–383 · Treatise
For students of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit at the time of the Council of Constantinople; a short, sharp defence of the Spirit's divinity, incomplete at the end.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 380–381 · Letter
For readers who want the Cappadocian doctrine of the Trinity in a few pages addressed to a layman; printed among Basil's letters for centuries, and a good first taste of Gregory's dogmatic writing.
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 380 · Sermon
For readers who know Athanasius and want the fourth century's own verdict on him; also the clearest short account of the Arian struggle from the Nicene side.
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Jerome · 380–420 · Book
For readers who want the 1893 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers volume as a whole — about 150 letters, nine treatises and the Vulgate prefaces with long introductions; the individual works are catalogued separately.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 381 · Sermon
For readers of the Council of Constantinople and of the art of the Christian funeral speech; a short oration for the bishop who presided over the council and died during it.
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John Chrysostom · 381–386 · Treatise
John Chrysostom's "On Virginity" emerged from the vibrant ascetical debates of fourth-century Christianity, when the Church was wrestling with how to understand and promote the celibate life amid a rapidly Christianizing empire.…
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 381 · Sermon
For readers of the feast of Epiphany and of baptism: the meaning of Christ's baptism and of ours, with a sharp survey of pagan mysteries for contrast; short.
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 381 · Sermon
For anyone preparing for baptism or teaching it, and for readers interested in why fourth-century Christians put baptism off; the fullest early sermon on the sacrament.
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 381 · Sermon
For readers following the story of his resignation from Constantinople in 381; a defence of his two years there and a farewell, personal and bitter by turns.
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