First Thoughts Reader’s Guide
(alphabetical by author)
- Allen, Alexander V. G. The Continuity of Christian Thought: A Study of Modern Theology in the Light of its History. Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1884.
Foundational lectures on Christian Theology delivered as the Bohlen Lectures 1883 in Philadelphia. - Dewey, Arthur J., Hoover, Roy W., McGaughy, Lane C., and Schmidt, Daryl D. The Authentic Letters of Paul, A New Reading of Paul’s Rhetoric and Meaning. Polebridge Press, Salem, OR, 2010.
A scholarly look at the seven undisputed letters of Paul including spurious interpolations by later scribes which remain in most Bibles. - Ehrman, Bart D.
A Brief Introduction to the New Testament. Oxford University Press, 2004.
Excellent Historical/Textual Critical introduction.
The New Testament and Other Early Christian Writings. A Reader (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press, 2004.
English translation of every surviving document produced by a Christian produced during the first hundred years of the church (ca. 30 CE – ca. 130 CE).
After the New Testament. A Reader in Early Christianity. Oxford University Press, 1999.
English translation of 2nd and 3rd century Christian and related texts, including documents from the Dead Sea Scrolls and Nag Hammadi library.
Christianity in Late Antiquity 300 CE – 450 CE. A Reader. Oxford University Press, 2004.
English translation of 4th and 5th century Christian texts (with two exceptions). Covers the period from the last Great Persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletion to the Fourth Ecumenical Church Council under Emperor Marcion.
Misquoting Jesus. The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. HarperCollins, 2005.
A readable explanation and discussion of modern Textual Criticism of the New Testament and search for the original manuscripts. - Hart, David Bentley
The Story of Christianity. A History of 2,000 years of the Christian Faith. Quercus, 2015.
Hart’s scholarship, command of Greek, and intellectual honesty can be thoroughly trusted.
The New Testament. A Translation (2nd Edition). Yale University Press, 2023
Probably the closest any English-speaking reader will ever get to the meaning, context and metaphysics of the original Greek manuscripts of the New Testament.
That All Shall Be Saved. Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation. Yale University Press, 2019.
“Infernalists” will do what zealots always do when facing a superior argument: Ignore it and scream out their own flawed dogma more loudly. This is just such a superior argument. - Heard, John B. Alexandrian and Carthaginian Theology Contrasted. T & T Clark, Edinburgh, 1893.
Foundational work on the differences between Western Latin and Eastern Greek Christian Theology. Delivered as the Hulsean Lectures 1892-93 at the University of Cambridge, England. - Hierotheos, Metropolitan of Nafpaktos. Orthodox Spirituality, a Brief Introduction. Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, Levadia, Greece, 2002.
A very short introduction to Orthodox spirituality by a recognized contemporary expert, author, and senior cleric. - Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1976.
A classic of theology of the Eastern church. - St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain and St. Makarios of Corinth, comps. The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Translated by G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. 5 vols. London: Faber and Faber, 1979–2024.
The Philokalia is “a collection of texts written between the 4th and 14th centurieensis by spiritual masters” of the Eastern Orthodox Church mystical hesychast tradition. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in “the practice of the contemplative life.” The publishers of the current English translation state that “the Philokalia has exercised an influence far greater than that of any book other than the Bible in the recent history of the Orthodox Church.” - Romanides, John S. Franks, Romans, Feudalism, and Doctrine – An Interplay Between Theology and Society. Holy Cross Press, 1982.
“The schism between Eastern and Western Christianity was not between East and West Romans. In actuality, it was a split between East Romans and the conquerors of the West Romans”. Delivered as the Patriarch Athenagoras Memorial Lectures 1981 at the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA. - Ward, Benedicta. The Sayings of the Desert Fathers. The Alphabetical Collection. Cistercian Publications, 1975.
A collection of sayings of the Desert Fathers of the Egyptian, Palestinian, and Syrian Deserts beginning in the 4th century C.E. This ascetic movement marked the beginning of Christian Monasticism. - Ware, Kallistos (Archimandrite). The Orthodox Way. St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986.
An excellent, readable summary of contemporary Orthodox theology and doctrine.
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