Christian classics, philosophy & history
Old books, easy to understand. Never watered down.
A free library of 400+ classics, modernized sentence by sentence and faithful to the author. Read any of them online in full, or listen to 153 as audiobooks.
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For Thanksgiving
Of Plymouth Plantation
William Bradford's firsthand chronicle of the Pilgrims: persecution in England, exile in Holland, the Mayflower crossing, the first hard winter, and the colony they built at Plymouth, told by the man who governed it.
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A free account opens 400+ modernized editions to read online, on your phone or at your desk. Open a book on one device and it is waiting at the same page on the next. Audiobooks play in the same place, and the PDF and EPUB of every book are yours to keep.
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31 topics across the library.
Before and after
A page from 1535, and how it reads now
On the left, the opening of William Tyndale's Obedience of a Christian Man as a London printer set it in 1535. On the right, that passage as we have modernized it. The order and the argument are Tyndale's; the words are plainer.
The Obedience of a Christian Man
The Prologue to the Book
Our holy prelates and our spiritual men of religion, who ought to defend God’s word, speak evil of it and do it all the shame they can. They rail on it, and they make their captives believe that it causes insurrection, teaches the people to disobey their heads and governors, and stirs them to rise against their princes, to make all things common and to make havoc of other men’s goods. Therefore I have made this little treatise that follows, containing all obedience that is of God.
From readers
Faithful to the author, readable by you
They do a really good job at not "missing the point" or "watering down" main theological themes from their modernization. These Updated Works publications are one of the best introductions to these classic Puritan works there is.
The conversational style that it has been updated to has really made this book much more enjoyable than the stilted language of the original I tried to read.
This book provides an excellent pastoral, systematic unpacking of the doctrines of the Christian faith as found in the first part of the Westminster Catechism. I would recommend it for anyone who is looking to have their hearts warmed while also their theology sharpened and clarified according to God's Word.
Why it is free
Christians have written for two thousand years about the things we still wrestle with, and most of it is locked up in English that is hundreds of years old. We unlock it and give it away, because you should not need a PhD, or a credit card, to read an old book. More about us →
Ongoing projects
Beyond single books
Two long-running efforts, both free to read.
217 volumes of the Latin Church Fathers
Patrologia Latina in English
Migne's collection of the Latin Church, from Tertullian to Innocent III, has never existed in English. We are translating it volume by volume — volumes 1–25 complete, 445 works translated, every one free to read online.
Read the translations →America's schoolbook, restored
McGuffey's Readers
The 1879 Revised Edition, rebuilt page by page from the original scans: clear type, every pronunciation mark, every engraving. 7 of 7 readers restored, 1,622 pages, free to download and print.
See the seven readers →New books, as they come out
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