Free E-books
This page provides links and annotations to e-books available free on the web. Particularly useful works are marked with an asterisk (*). Caution: Beginning scholars should avoid using texts marked dated in their work.
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy by B. B. Warfield. Warfield was the last great old-school Presbyterian at Princeton. Writing at the inception of the 20th-century, he somehow defied the fragmentation of the theological encyclopedia. History, systematics, exegesis, and polemics all hang together in his corpus, and exquisitely so. This book, though, is remarkably free from polemics. The staunch Calvinist writing on Augustine’s theology of grace makes not one explicit reference to Roman Catholicism or Arminianism. Dated. [Note: Originally published in 1905 as an essay in Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series.]
Augustine: The Thinker (1906) by George Wilbur Osmun. A hostile examination of Augustine's thought. The preface announces, "No attempt is made in this volume to glorify Augustine. The single aim is to present him as he was—to preserve him from his adulators." Dated.
*Augustine’s Philosophy of Mind (1987) by Gerard O’Daly. O’Daly is a classicist who has written extensively on cognition, self, and argumentative method in late antique authors. The present work is the only significant modern monograph that seeks to present holistically Augustine’s conception of the nature and activities of “mind” or “soul” (not merely the human soul). This topic is immensely important to understand Augustine as a philosopher. Thus, O’Daly’s work is not one scholars can afford to ignore.
Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (1981) by James Murphy. Chapter 2 is devoted to Augustine's theory of rhetoric. Further references to Augustine are sprinkled throughout the work.
S. Augustine the Preacher (1877) by John Marks Ashley. This striking book is a collection of fifty explanatory notes on short passages from Augustine's sermons. Ashley sought passages that clearly stated great truths in few words and that focused on subjective or ethical truths. Each of the fifty sermons are on a different topic, so there is great variety. At only 4-5 pages per note, this book makes delightful distraction reading. Dated.
The Life and Labors of Augustine (1854) by Philip Schaff. Schaff was one of the great church historians of the 19th century. His editions of the church fathers and works on Christian creeds are still used today. Here, in less than 100 pages, he has crafted a powerful portrait of Augustine, with all the polish one adores in a 19th-century man of letters. Dated.
Augustine & The Pelagian Controversy by B. B. Warfield. Warfield was the last great old-school Presbyterian at Princeton. Writing at the inception of the 20th-century, he somehow defied the fragmentation of the theological encyclopedia. History, systematics, exegesis, and polemics all hang together in his corpus, and exquisitely so. This book, though, is remarkably free from polemics. The staunch Calvinist writing on Augustine’s theology of grace makes not one explicit reference to Roman Catholicism or Arminianism. Dated. [Note: Originally published in 1905 as an essay in Schaff's Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers series.]
Augustine: The Thinker (1906) by George Wilbur Osmun. A hostile examination of Augustine's thought. The preface announces, "No attempt is made in this volume to glorify Augustine. The single aim is to present him as he was—to preserve him from his adulators." Dated.
*Augustine’s Philosophy of Mind (1987) by Gerard O’Daly. O’Daly is a classicist who has written extensively on cognition, self, and argumentative method in late antique authors. The present work is the only significant modern monograph that seeks to present holistically Augustine’s conception of the nature and activities of “mind” or “soul” (not merely the human soul). This topic is immensely important to understand Augustine as a philosopher. Thus, O’Daly’s work is not one scholars can afford to ignore.
Rhetoric in the Middle Ages (1981) by James Murphy. Chapter 2 is devoted to Augustine's theory of rhetoric. Further references to Augustine are sprinkled throughout the work.
S. Augustine the Preacher (1877) by John Marks Ashley. This striking book is a collection of fifty explanatory notes on short passages from Augustine's sermons. Ashley sought passages that clearly stated great truths in few words and that focused on subjective or ethical truths. Each of the fifty sermons are on a different topic, so there is great variety. At only 4-5 pages per note, this book makes delightful distraction reading. Dated.
The Life and Labors of Augustine (1854) by Philip Schaff. Schaff was one of the great church historians of the 19th century. His editions of the church fathers and works on Christian creeds are still used today. Here, in less than 100 pages, he has crafted a powerful portrait of Augustine, with all the polish one adores in a 19th-century man of letters. Dated.