What can contemporary media fandoms, like Anne Rice, Star Wars, Batman, or Sherlock Holmes, tell us about ancient Christianity? Tom de Bruin demonstrates how fandom and fan fiction are both analogous and incongruous with Christian derivative works. The often-disparaging terms applied to Christian apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, such as fakes, forgeries or corruptions, are not sufficient to capture the production, consumption, and value of these writings. De Bruin reimagines a range of early Christian works as fan practices. Exploring these ancient texts in new ways, he takes the reader on a journey from the 'fix-it fic' endings of the Gospel of Mark to the subversive fan fictions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and from the densely populated storyworld of early Christian art to the gatekeeping of Christian orthodoxy. Using theory developed in fan studies, De Bruin revisits fundamental questions about ancient derivative texts: Why where they written? How do they interact with more established texts? In what ways does the consumption of derivative works influence the reception of existing traditions? And how does the community react to these works? This book sheds exciting and new light on ancient Christian literary production, consumption and transmission.

What can contemporary media fandoms, like Anne Rice, Star Wars, Batman, or Sherlock Holmes, tell us about ancient Christianity? Tom de Bruin demonstrates how fandom and fan fiction are both analogous and incongruous with Christian derivative works. The often-disparaging terms applied to Christian apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, such as fakes, forgeries or corruptions, are not sufficient to capture the production, consumption, and value of these writings. De Bruin reimagines a range of early Christian works as fan practices. Exploring these ancient texts in new ways, he takes the reader on a journey from the 'fix-it fic' endings of the Gospel of Mark to the subversive fan fictions of the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, and from the densely populated storyworld of early Christian art to the gatekeeping of Christian orthodoxy. Using theory developed in fan studies, De Bruin revisits fundamental questions about ancient derivative texts: Why where they written? How do they interact with more established texts? In what ways does the consumption of derivative works influence the reception of existing traditions? And how does the community react to these works? This book sheds exciting and new light on ancient Christian literary production, consumption and transmission.

Eldredge uses stories from movies and literature to illuminate the epic story of God.

Edith Schaeffer lovingly encourages Christians to embrace the Jewishness of their faith. When the early church repudiated its Jewish roots, the New Testament became disconnected from its Hebraic foundations in the Old Testament. Edith Schaeffer presents a most convincing case for an unbreakable continuity in the flow of history from Genesis to Revelation. Her book reveals the thread of redemption in its Jewish context and Christianity as a grafted vine rooted in Judaism. The reader will hardly be able to miss the conclusion that the Christian gospel built on the foundation of the prophets and of the apostles is entirely Jewish. We live in a time when Christians and Jews are confused about their true identity and mutual calling to each other. This book deserves a re-edition at a time of unrelenting persistence of anti-Semitism, when much of the world turns their backs on Israel and the Jews. The global community of nations risks abandoning its Judeo-Christian heritage. This book's simple message may be what is needed to open the eyes of the Church to what Christianity owes to the Jews: gratitude, love, and the knowledge of their Jewish Messiah as the true Passover Lamb.

Written originally as a fanfiction for the series Twilight, the popularity of Fifty Shades of Grey has made obvious what was always clear to fans and literary scholars alike: that it is an essential human activity to read and retell epic stories of famous heroic characters. The Fanfiction Reader showcases the extent to which the archetypal storytelling exemplified by fanfiction has continuities with older forms: the communal tale-telling cultures of the past and the remix cultures of the present have much in common. Short stories that draw on franchises such as Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who, James Bond, and others are accompanied by short contextual and analytical essays wherein Coppa treats fanfiction—a genre primarily written by women and minorities—as a rich literary tradition in which non-mainstream themes and values can thrive.

New to this expanded & updated edition are revisions of Ferguson's original material, updated bibliographies, & a fresh dicussion of first century social life, the Dead Sea Scrolls & much else.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.