Heresy Hunting in the New Millennium
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3944439 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tony Burke (0000-0002-0919-7853, York University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2010 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 405-420 |
| Publication date | 2010-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0008-4298 • E-ISSN: 2042-0587 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0008429810373319 |
| OpenAlex | W2161604241 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
The popularity of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has led to a surge of attacks on Christian Apocryphal literature by conservative New Testament scholars (e.g., Ben Witherington III, Craig Evans, Darrell L. Bock). The work of these scholars is transparently polemical-for example, Evans states that his book, Fabricating Jesus, was written "to defend the original witnesses to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus" (p. 17). And their methods are not new; indeed they use the same rhetorical strategies employed by such early heresiologists as Irenaeus, including the use of sarcasm and invective to describe their opponents, the intentional misrepresentation of the heretics'/scholars' views and the content of the primary texts, the excerpting of material from the texts in order to expose their absurdities, and the demonization of their opponents by associating them with the powers of darkness. This article illustrates the parallels between modern critics and the ancient heresy hunters but focuses particularly on how the two groups use and abuse the apocryphal texts. Perhaps we can learn from the contemporary debate something about the reception of the Christian Apocrypha in antiquity
Apocrypha · Art · Demonization · Eclecticism · Heresy · Invective · Literature · Misrepresentation · New Testament · Orthodoxy · Parallels · Rhetorical question · Theology · Biblical Studies and Interpretation · Classics · History · Law · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |