2nd Century
Authors
Athenagoras
An Athenian philosopher who pleaded the Christian cause before emperors with unusual calm and courtesy.
Clement of Alexandria
An Alexandrian teacher who welcomed Greek learning as a schoolmaster leading its pupils toward Christ.
Hermas
The visionary of The Shepherd, an early Roman book of visions and parables calling the church to repentance.
Ignatius
Bishop of Antioch, who wrote seven letters on the road to martyrdom, pleading for unity and for love.
Irenaeus
Bishop of Lyons, who answered Gnostic teaching by telling the whole story of God's saving work from beginning to end.
Justin Martyr
A philosopher who kept his cloak after conversion, defending the faith before emperors and dying for it.
Mathetes
The unnamed writer of the Epistle to Diognetus, one of the loveliest descriptions of Christians in the world.
Papias
An early bishop whose surviving fragments preserve the church's oldest memories of how the Gospels came to be.
Polycarp
Bishop of Smyrna and disciple of John, whose letter and martyrdom link the apostles to the later church.
Remains of the Second and Third Centuries
Fragments of Melito, Hegesippus, Quadratus, and other early writers whose fuller works have not survived.
Tatian
A pupil of Justin who addressed the Greeks with sharp candour and wove the four Gospels into one narrative.
Tertullian
The first great Latin Christian writer, whose vivid, forceful prose gave the West much of its theological vocabulary.
The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs
Farewell speeches placed on the lips of Jacob's twelve sons, rich in moral counsel and forward hope.
Theophilus
Bishop of Antioch, whose three books to Autolycus commend the living God to a sceptical friend.