[This post is mirrored from my other blog]

I was very glad to awake this morning and see that Geoffrey Steadman as returned to his Greek and Latin texts with Facing Vocabulary and Commentary projects with some very fine new additions.

It has reminded me that I do need to return to my inspired-by-the-above Patristic Readers. Really, my work on these ground to a virtual halt due to the twin pressures of a thesis and an infant child.

It also hasn’t helped that I have so far worked on relatively short texts which do not provide enough material for a print volume in themselves.

I do have hopes though! I have already made a decent start on the third Gregory of Nyssa text, and that should not take forever, which could see the three of them put together for a printable volume.

Also, teaching Gregory Nazianzus Oration 29 this week, I normally format my own teaching materials in the same style as the readers. So that would be a headstart there for a next volume. It would be nice to offer all 5 Theological Orations together.

Even after just a day of teaching with some experienced students, I’m reminded how great the gap is for those wanting to transition into Patristic texts. It is not easy, and good help is hard to come by. I myself have had recourse to ask more than a few questions about Gregory’s Greek to an associate.

Anyway, we live in hope, and particularly I hope to put this dissertation to bed in a few months…

Today I’m releasing a short text, Gregory of Nyssa’s Ad Simplicium, de Fide.

This text is but a brief 1584 words, and provides a gentle introduction to one of the great Fathers of the Church. It also complements the longer Ad Ablabium nicely. Once I complete a third treatise of Gregory, I’ll combine the three into a nice little volume. Until then, enjoy this free pdf version.

If the page numbering seems odd, it is simply because the text will follow on from Ad Ablabium in a print volume. But, in the pdf version that should be irrelevant.

I have uploaded a revised edition of The Martyrdom of Polycarp, current as of February 2015. I incorporated a number of corrections and expanded some of the commentary. I also ironed out a couple of formatting issues, though I think a few still remain.

In the next few weeks I will also update and revise the Passion of Perpetua.

Following that I hope to have a third patristic text online within a few months, and I am still working with a designer on a cover to bring some of these editions to print.

To coincide with the launch of my new website and blog at The Patrologist, I’m also pleased to announce the release of a pdf version of The Passion of Perpetua.

This is a reader’s version of the Greek text of this early martyr account, focused on Perpetua and her companions’ martyrdoms in North Africa in the early 3rd century. It is notable for including a considerable section considered to have been written by Perpetua herself, thus a very early text from a Christian woman. As well, one sees the development of the theology of martyrdom in the North African context, and hints of Montanist influence.

With this draft version complete, I will now be looking to release a print version of these first two texts together, sometime over the next 2 months. I have also commenced work on the next Patristic Reader text.