Early Church Writings
About this shelf
Before there were cathedrals, there were letters. Ignatius of Antioch wrote seven of them under armed escort to his execution in Rome around 110 AD; Polycarp of Smyrna — a hearer of the apostle John — answered the Philippians; the Didache set down the church’s earliest manual of baptism, fasting and the Eucharist, lost until 1873. This shelf collects the Apostolic Fathers and their world: 1 and 2 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas (bound into the oldest complete Bible we possess, Codex Sinaiticus), the martyrdom acts, and the first apologists who defended a young, illegal faith to Roman emperors.
All of it in complete, unabridged modern-English editions — the texts the earliest church actually read, finally readable today. Members read online, listen to the full audiobooks, and order print at our true printing cost. Related shelves: Lost Gospels & Acts, More Apocryphal Texts.
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