Reading Christian Apocrypha: Tradition, Interpretation, Practice - Softcover

Tobias Nicklas; Janet Spittler

This title will be released on 16 September 2025

Softcover

ISBN 10: 150648140X ISBN 13: 9781506481401

Publisher: Fortress Press, 2025

Synopsis

Christian apocrypha has suffered neglect. Living just outside the Christian canon, apocryphal Christian works have been judged deficient, secret, and even heretical. In Reading Christian Apocrypha, Tobias Nicklas and Janet Spittler lavish attention upon these extracanonical texts to demonstrate that, far from being superfluous or fringe, Christian apocrypha plays a crucial role in the history of Christianity. Apocryphal works function as important witnesses for the reception of Jesus, Paul, and other apostolic figures. Beyond the reception of canonical figures, however, they provide foundational stories that fill in the Christian landscape of memories, supplying local and regional Christian communities with narratives that tie their own environment, traditions, and practices to the activities of the apostles and apostolic figures. Reading Christian Apocrypha also explores how apocryphal works adopt and adapt Jewish and Greco-Roman views on the origin of the world, its history, and the world to come, creating new "spaces of interpretation" around biblical texts and traditions. The apocryphal writings reveal that Christianity, from the very beginning, developed a wide variety of theological perspectives within diverse linguistic traditions and geographical areas. Ultimately, Reading Christian Apocrypha demonstrates that the distinction between "canonical" and "apocryphal" tradition is far blurrier than often assumed.

About this title

About the Author

Tobias Nicklas is a professor of New Testament studies at the University of Regensburg, Germany. 

Jens Schröter is professor of New Testament exegesis and ancient Christian apocrypha at the Humboldt-University of Berlin.

Janet Spittler is associate professor of religious studies at the University of Virginia.

Edition details

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 150648140X
• ISBN 13: 9781506481401
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 326