1. 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 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).

 

 2. 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; reissue: 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).

 

 

 4. 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).

Benjamin P. Blosser, Become Like the Angels: Origen’s Doctrine of the Soul (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2012) hardcover, $70. NEW.

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 (1959; reprint: 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).

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).

Peter W. Martens, Origen and Scripture: The Contours of the Exegetical Life, Oxford Early Christian Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) hardcover, $125.  NEW.

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).

Mark S.M. Scott, Journey Back to God: Origen on the Problem of Evil, AAR Academy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) hardcover, $75.  NEW.

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).

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

 

 5. 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 unique―and often misunderstood―reading 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).

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).  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).

 

 6. CHRISTIANITY IN NORTH AFRICA

 

François Decret, Early Christianity in North Africa, trans. Edward Smither (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2009). French original: Le christianisme en Afrique du Nord, 1996.  One of the finest overviews tracing the history of North African Christianity from Tertullian to Cyprian to Augustine to the 6th-century Byzantine reconquest.

 

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).

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, Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200-450 CE (Cornell University Press, 2012) hardcover, $50. NEW.

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.

 

 7. 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.

Ernest Evans, ed. and trans., Tertullian's Treatise against Praxeas (1948: Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2011). This includes both the Latin text and Evans' translation.

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).

 

 8. 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.

 

 9. 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).

 

 10. 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).

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 History 53.2 (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).

 

 

Revised: January 3, 2013

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