Topics

Short collections of passages from the Fathers and classic Christian writers, gathered by theme. Each one links back to its place in the full book.

Prayer

How the Fathers prayed and taught others to pray: praise, the Lord’s Prayer, and keeping God in mind through an ordinary day.

Grief, hardship and trial, and how these writers learned to bear them in faith.

Lowliness of heart, freedom from vainglory, and the danger of pride.

Money, giving and the poor: some of the most direct words in early Christian writing.

Love of God and neighbour, which these writers place at the centre of the Christian life.

Turning back to God: confession of sin, forgiveness, and the struggle to change.

Mortality, the resurrection, and the hope of life with God.

Why, in the Fathers’ words, the Son of God became man.

Quiet, guarded speech and inner stillness as a path to prayer.

How believing and thinking fit together, from the second-century apologists to Chesterton.