Episode Details

You probably have heard about the canonical Gospels in the New Testament. They introduce famous characters like the apostles Peter and John. But they also introduce not-so-famous characters that only show up for one chapter or less...guys like Nicodemus or Bartholomew. Despite the obscurity of these characters, early Christians in the 2nd century and onward wrote texts featuring these characters. I argue that this is a form of "fan fiction," and viewed through the lens of modern fandoms, we can see the motivation for why these Christians decided to write apocryphal literature.

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Twitter: @andrewmarkhenry

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Bibliography:

Ika Willis: http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/692/564

Acts of Paul and Thecla text: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/religion/maps/primary/thecla.html

http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/09/fan_fiction_as_critical_commen.html

Photo attributions:

Paul and Thecla Ephesus fresco: http://rmadisonj.blogspot.com/2013/05/acts-of-paul-and-thecla-and-other-people.html

St. Thecla from Barcelona: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Barcelona_Cathedral_Interior_-_St._Thecla_-_1486.jpg

Chapel of St. Thecla, Czech Republic: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chapel_of_Saint_Thecla_2016_-_east_view.jpg

Roman Amphitheater: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Merida_Roman_Amphitheatre_0594.jpg

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