A Loose Canon? New Testament Apocrypha

Most of us are familiar with the 27 books of the New Testament, the Christian “canon” accepted by the Church as the authentic word of God. We have seldom heard about a huge body of texts known as “apocryphal” or extracanonical because they were condemned as untrue, fake, or contrary to the Faith. In this class we will examine some of these “forbidden texts” for the insights they offer into early Christianity and for their afterlives in art and literature. Judith Davis is Professor Emerita of French and Humanities. Retired after 24 years at Goshen College, she has taught Lifelong Learning classes on the Virgin Mary and dystopian literature, among others. Attend either in-person or virtually.