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Orations Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus
Gregory of Nazianzus · 362–390 · Sermon
For readers who want Gregory the preacher and orator, taken by occasion — a funeral, a feast, a farewell — rather than read end to end; the free English covers twenty-four of the forty-five.
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Athanasius of Alexandria · 362 · Letter
For students of how the Nicene party reconciled after Julian recalled the exiles; short and important.
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Basil the Great · 363–365 · Treatise
For readers of Trinitarian theology who want the argument Gregory of Nyssa later finished: how 'unbegotten' is not God's essence, and why the Son is not a creature. No English translation is free; not for the general reader in any case.
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Ephrem the Syrian · 363–373 · Commentary
Ephrem the Syrian's Commentary on the Diatessaron stands as the earliest surviving verse-by-verse commentary on Tatian's gospel harmony, composed during the final decade of Ephrem's life in Edessa between 363 and 373.…
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Basil the Great · 363–378 · Sermon
For anyone who has heard Basil quoted on wealth and the poor and wants the sermons themselves (I will pull down my barns, To the rich, On the famine, Against usury), with others on fasting, anger, envy and baptism. One is free in English.
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Ephrem the Syrian · 363–373 · Poem
These fifteen liturgical hymns emerge from the golden age of Syriac Christianity in fourth-century Mesopotamia, composed by Ephrem during his final decade in Edessa. Written in the distinctive Syriac poetic meter that…
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Ephrem the Syrian · 363–373 · Poem
Ephrem the Syrian composed these liturgical hymns during the final decade of his life while serving as a deacon in Edessa, as the young Christian church faced both external persecution and internal…
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Ephrem the Syrian · 363–373 · Sermon
These homilies represent the flowering of Syriac Christianity in the fourth century, delivered by Ephrem the Syrian during his final decade in Edessa. As deacon of the cathedral church, Ephrem preached to…
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Hilary of Poitiers · 364–365 · Treatise
Against Auxentius stands as one of Hilary of Poitiers' final theological battles, written in 364-365 during his last years as he confronted the resurgence of Arianism in the West. The treatise targets…
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 364–365 · Sermon
For historians of Julian and of Christians under a pagan emperor; two long, furious invectives in a Victorian translation, not devotional reading.
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Hilary of Poitiers · 365–367 · Commentary
Hilary of Poitiers wrote his Commentary on the Psalms during his exile in Phrygia between 356 and 360, where he had been banished by the Arian emperor Constantius II for his defense…
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Hilary of Poitiers · 365 · Treatise
Hilary of Poitiers composed this treatise around 365 during his exile in Phrygia, where his forced encounter with Eastern theology compelled him to articulate a distinctly Western response to Arian christological controversies.…
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 368–372 · Sermon
For readers of Greek, and for anyone studying Christian care for the poor and the sick — the sermon behind Basil's hospital; no free English translation yet.
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Athanasius of Alexandria · 368–372 · Letter
For historians of the creeds after Ariminum; a short synodal letter.
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 369 · Sermon
For readers who want Gregory on grief, and a picture of his family; the funeral oration for his younger brother, a court physician, ending in consolation for their parents.
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Gregory of Nazianzus · 369–374 · Sermon
For readers interested in how the early church praised a married woman's holiness, and for anyone who liked Oration 7; the funeral oration for his sister.
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Basil the Great · 370 · Letter
For anyone who reads: a bishop telling his nephews how to take what is good from Homer and Plato and leave the rest. An hour's reading, and the best first page of Basil for a newcomer.
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Didymus the Blind · 370–398 · Commentary
This commentary represents Didymus the Blind's sustained engagement with one of Scripture's most philosophically challenging books during his tenure as head of the catechetical school in Alexandria in the late fourth century.…
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Didymus the Blind · 370–398 · Commentary
Didymus the Blind's Commentary on Genesis represents one of the most sophisticated exegetical works to emerge from fourth-century Alexandria. Written during the height of the Arian controversy and the consolidation of Nicene…
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Basil the Great · 370–378 · Commentary
For readers who already love the Psalms and want to hear a fourth-century preacher expound them line by line - the homily on Psalm 1 is the classic praise of psalmody. No free English exists; Way's 1963 translation is in copyright.
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Athanasius of Alexandria · 370–372 · Letter
For readers of Christology between Nicaea and Chalcedon: the short letter in which he insists that Christ's body was a real human body, read aloud at Chalcedon as a touchstone of orthodoxy.
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Gregory of Nyssa · 370–394 · Letter
For readers who want the man behind the treatises: travel, friendships, a church building, his brother Peter, and a bishop's troubles; the NPNF selection gives eighteen of the thirty letters.
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Jerome · 370–420 · Letter
For any reader: the best way to meet Jerome — on virginity, on a clergyman's life, on translating Scripture, on grief, on Rome and Bethlehem — in about 150 letters, the free English being a generous selection.
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Letters Letters (Gregory Nazianzen)
Gregory of Nazianzus · 370–390 · Letter
For readers who want the man behind the orations — friendships, quarrels, favours asked — and for students of Christology, the two letters to Cledonius; the free English is a selection of about fifty of the 249.
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