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28 subjects · 1580 work assignments

Works grouped by what they are about. A work appears under every subject it touches; subject assignments are curated by author and title, not guessed from the text.

• Logos theology
  91 works
  The divine Word and Wisdom: how Philo, John, Justin, Origen and the Platonists speak of God's Logos.
• Christology & the Trinity
  57 works
  Who Christ is, and how Father, Son and Spirit are one God: the Arian controversy and its answers.
• Creation & cosmology
  91 works
  How the world began and what it is made of, from Genesis commentary to the Timaeus and the Hexaemeron.
• The soul
  93 works
  What the soul is, whether it survives death, and how it knows: Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus and the Fathers.
• Providence & fate
  25 works
  Does anything govern the world — providence, fate, fortune — and can prayer change it?
• Ethics & virtue
  99 works
  How to live: virtue, duty, the passions, and the happy life, from Aristotle and the Stoics to Ambrose.
• Martyrdom & persecution
  10 works
  Christians on trial and Christians dying: apologies, acts, and letters written on the road to death.
• Roman law & empire
  74 works
  Rome ruling: its law, its emperors, its wars of conquest, and the Christians and Jews who lived under it.
• Sacrifice & worship
  63 works
  Offerings, sacraments, hymns and liturgy: how ancient peoples approached the divine, and what replaced sacrifice.
• Biblical interpretation
  76 works
  Reading Scripture allegorically, literally, and against opponents: Philo, Origen, and the great commentaries.
• Translation & transmission
  17 works
  How ancient books survived: translations, fragments quoted by later writers, and the scholars who preserved them.
• Grace, sin & free will
  33 works
  Original sin, justification, and whether the will is free: Augustine, the Pelagian debate, and Trent.
• Death & the afterlife
  5 works
  What happens after death: resurrection, judgment, purgatory, and the soul's journey in poetry and philosophy.
• Prayer & monastic life
  17 works
  The desert, the cell, and the hymn: monks, hermits, and the prayers of the early and medieval Church.
• Heresy & apologetics
  25 works
  Defending the faith and naming its rivals: apologies to emperors, refutations of Marcion, Celsus, and the Gnostics.
• Church order & councils
  73 works
  Who governs the Church, and how it decides: bishops, canons, creeds, and the councils from Nicaea to Vatican II.
• History & historiography
  79 works
  The ancient historians and the church historians: wars, empires, and the story of the Church itself.
• Rhetoric & oratory
  69 works
  The art of persuasion in court, assembly, and pulpit: the Attic orators, Cicero, and the preaching Fathers.
• Poetry & drama
  126 works
  Epic, tragedy, comedy, satire and lyric: the poems and plays that carried the classical world.
• Philosophy of nature
  15 works
  Physics before physics: elements, atoms, the heavens, and whether the world had a beginning.
• Love & friendship
  55 works
  Eros, philia, and amor: love poetry, dialogues on friendship, and the comedies built on lovers.
• War & politics
  94 works
  Battles, conspiracies, and constitutions: the Peloponnesian War, Rome's civil wars, and Shakespeare's histories.
• Myth & legend
  70 works
  Gods, heroes, and transformations: the myths retold by poets, historians, and philosophers.
• Wisdom literature
  24 works
  Proverbs, testaments, and instructions for life: the wisdom books and the dying words of patriarchs.
• Prophecy & eschatology
  27 works
  Visions of the end and voices from heaven: apocalypses, ascensions, and the Shepherd's revelations.
• Jewish law & temple
  91 works
  Torah, temple, and priesthood in Second Temple literature: Josephus, Philo, and the Law's interpreters.
• Letters & biography
  64 works
  Lives written and letters kept: the ancient art of the letter and the biographies of saints, emperors, and philosophers.
• Education & paideia
  17 works
  How the ancients educated: reading the poets, training the young, and the Christian use of pagan letters.