LibGuides: Theology for Librarians: Primary Sources

Primary Resources in RWWL

The Desert Christian : Sayings of the Desert Fathers : The Alphabetical Collection by Benedicta Ward
Call Number: BR60.A5713 1980
ISBN: 9780879079598
The Desert Fathers : Sayings of the Early Christian Monks by Benedicta Ward
Call Number: BR63.D45 2003
ISBN: 9780140447316
Cyril of Alexandria, Select Letters by Lionel R. Wickham
Call Number: BR65.C952 E5 1983
ISBN: 0198268106
Ante-Nicene Fathers : The Writings of the Fathers down to A.D. 325 by Donaldson
Call Number: BR60.A5 1994
ISBN: 1602064695
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers by Schaff & Wace
Call Number: Ref BR60 .S42 1994
ISBN: 9781602065079
Documents of the Christian Church by Harry Bettenson
Call Number: BR141 .B4 1967 and Ebook
ISBN: 0199568987

Primary Sources

African Religions Sacred Texts
" The earliest written religious texts as well as the first documented monotheistic religion also developed in Africa. During the European dark ages, many ancient manuscripts were preserved in African libraries in places such as Ethiopia and Timbuctoo. This section has texts on the traditional spirituality of Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as their descendants in the New World. "
Ancient Egyptian Texts
The civilization of Ancient Egypt lasted longer than the entire span of what we have come to accept as 'recorded history': over three thousand years. During these millenia the Egyptians developed a multitude of gods and goddesses, as well as esoteric practices that we are still unravelling the meaning of. Besides this, Egypt was the source of the first true monothestic religion, under the pharaoh Akhenaton. This rich tradition was mostly unknown until the early nineteenth century, when the Egypt
Ancient Egyptian Resources - Fordham University
Ancient Medditeranean Inscriptions - Images
"Building an Image Bank of Inscriptions
The Centre is undertaking a long-term project to create a library of digitised images of Greek inscriptions, based in the first instance on material in its squeeze collection. The scope and technical details of the project are described in this article."
Babylonian Talmud
"To our knowledge this is the first extensive English translation of the Talmud to be posted on the Internet. The Talmud is a vast collection of Jewish laws and traditions. Despite the dry subject matter the Talmud makes interesting reading because it is infused with vigorous intellectual debate, humor and deep wisdom."
Baptist and Reformed Primary Sources
An on-going project of The Reformed Reader is to present authors of Baptist and Reformed books, miscellaneous works and on-line biographies. A much needed resource for Baptists in the 21st century is a return to the "old paths" of our historic Baptist heritage rich in the Reformed faith. Along with the "old paths", Reformed Baptist authors of our present time will be presented here as well as introducing authors less known but who are committed to the continuity of the Reformed Baptist faith.<
BiblIndex
Index of Biblical Quotations and Allusions in Early Christian Literature
Calvin's Institutes Online
Beveridge translation. Published first in 1536, the Institutes of the Christian Religion is John Calvin's magnum opus. The Institutes has remained important for Protestant theology for almost five centuries. Written to "aid those who desire to be instructed in the doctrine of salvation," the Institutes, which follows the ordering of the Apostle's Creed, has four parts. The first part examines God the Father; the second part, the Son; the third part, the Holy Spirit;
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and the fourth part, the Church. Through these four parts, it explores both "knowledge of God" and "knowledge of ourselves" with profound theological insight, challenging and informing all the while. Thus, for either the recent convert or the long-time believer, for the inquisitive beginner or the serious scholar, John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion is a rewarding book worthy of study!
Christian Classics Ethereal Library
From its own website: “Welcome to the CCEL! The mission of the CCEL is to build up the church by making classic Christian writings available and promoting their use. “Maintained by Calvin College.
The Complete Works of Josephus
The complete works of the famous Jewish historian, translated by William Whiston
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Emil Schürer writes: "The best known historian of Jewish affairs in the Greek language is the Palestinian Josephus, properly Joseph, the son of Matthias, a priest of Jerusalem. Of his two chief works one is, the Ιουδαικη Αρχαιολογια, a comprehensive delineation of the entire Jewish history from the beginning to his own times. It is the most extensive work on Jewish history in the Greek language with which we are acquainted, and has on that account so retained the lasting favour of Jewish, heathen and Christian readers, as to have been preserved entire in numerous manuscripts.
Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum
"The Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum (CSL) is a collaborative project among scholars from a variety of disciplines with the main purpose of creating a digital library of Latin literature, spanning from the earliest epigraphic remains to the Neo-Latinists of the eighteenth century. Toward this end, we maintain an up-to-date catalogue of all Latin texts that are currently available online, making CSL a single, centralized resource for locating Latin literature on the internet."
Early Church Texts With the Original Languages
A Subscription is required. "Is like an electronic encyclopedia of the first five centuries of Church History, with extensive links to information on around 700 people and themes, and around 230 Church Councils; plus links to many off-site public domain original language texts and English translations. "
Early Christian Writings
From its own website: “The purpose of this web site is to set out all of the Christian writings that are believed to have been written in the first and second centuries, as well as a few selected from the early third. I have also included non-Christian documents that may have special bearing on the study of early Christianity in order to make this web site a comprehensive sourcebook.”
Fire and Ice: Puritan and Reformed Writings
Primary sources include but not limited to Thomas Adams, Richard Baxter, Thomas Boston, Stephen Charnock, Jonathan Edwards, Ebenezer Erskine …
First Principles by Origen
A complete look at Christian doctrine on a scale that hadn't been acheived at that time.
The Internet Classics Archive
Greco-Roman and other primary sources. Select from a list of 441 works of classical literature by 59 different authors, including user-driven commentary and "reader's choice" Web sites. Mainly Greco-Roman works (some Chinese and Persian), all in English translation.
The Jonathan Edwards Center @ Yale
The mission of the Jonathan Edwards Center is to support inquiry into the life, writings, and legacy of Jonathan Edwards by providing resources that encourage critical appraisal of the historical importance and contemporary relevance of America’s premier theologian. The primary way that we do this is with the Works of Jonathan Edwards Online, a digital learning environment for research, education and publication, that presents all of Edwards’s writings, along with helpful editorial
The Nag Hammadi Texts
The Nag Hammadi Library, a collection of thirteen ancient codices containing over fifty texts, was discovered in upper Egypt in 1945. This immensely important discovery includes a large number of primary Gnostic texts such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, and the Gospel of Truth.
Perseus Project
Searchable Greek, Latin and translated English Ancient texts. Our larger mission is to help make the full record for humanity as intellectually accessible as possible to every human being, providing information adapted to as many linguistic and cultural backgrounds as possible. Our work in the 2008-09 academic year focuses upon the three most widespread classical languages of the Mediterranean world: Greek, Latin, and Arabic.
Philo of Alexandria
This ... page of The Resource Pages to Biblical Studies is intended to be a resource page dedicated to the study of Philo of Alexandria (ca. 20 BCE - ca 40 CE), the famous Jewish philosopher and theologian. It contains references and pointers to scholarly Philonic material from the steadily growing WWW world.
Pliny The Elder's Natural History
This is the Latin but each section allows you to go to a translation including English.
Reformation Sources
Primary sources from Luther, Melanchthon, Calvin, Zwingli, Bullinger
The Tertullian Project
"A collection of material ancient and modern about the ancient Christian Latin writer Tertullian and his writings." But it's also got many, many other obscure ancient church Father's writings
United Methodist Church African American Archives

More Library Resources

Luther's Works by Lehmann
Call Number: BR330 .E5
ISBN: 1458852199
The Works of Jonathan Edwards by Perry Miller
Call Number: BX7117 .E3
ISBN: 9780300158403
The Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English by Geza Vermes
Call Number: BM487 .A3 2004b
ISBN: 0140449523
Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture Series by Gerald Bray General Editor
ISBN: 0830814884
Search under "series" for Ancient Christian Commentary on Scriptures. We've got as many as have been published so far. Almost the entire Bible.
Augustine: Earlier Writings by John Burleigh
Call Number: Print and Ebook
ISBN: 066424162X
Augustine Later Works by John Burnaby
Call Number: BR65.A52E6 1980
ISBN: 0664241654
Selected Works by Fulgentius; Robert B. Eno (Translator)
Call Number: BR60.F3 F7725 1997 Ebook
ISBN: 9780813211954
Publication Date: 2010-04-15