Apocrypha - by Stephen de Young (Paperback)

About the Book

"Many Christians today divide ancient Jewish and Christian literature into two categories: what is in the Bible and what is not. The Christian East, however, has traditionally described a third category considered beneficial for Christians to read in the home: "apocrypha." These texts, from the centuries before and after the Incarnation of Jesus Christ-beyond even the larger canons of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testaments-reveal to us the religious world and theological framework of the apostles and early Church Fathers. In Apocrypha, a companion volume to The Religion of the Apostles, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys these works, which connect elements of liturgy, scripture, iconography, and patristic writings. Familiarity with them will enhance readers' understanding of the breadth and depth of the Orthodox Christian Faith."--

Book Synopsis

Many Christians today divide ancient Jewish and Christian literature into two categories: what is in the Bible and what is not. The Christian East, however, has traditionally described a third category considered beneficial for Christians to read in the home: "apocrypha." These texts, from the centuries before and after the Incarnation of Jesus Christ-beyond even the larger canons of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testaments-reveal to us the religious world and theological framework of the apostles and early Church Fathers. In Apocrypha, a companion volume to The Religion of the Apostles, Fr. Stephen De Young surveys these works, which connect elements of Liturgy, Scripture, iconography, and patristic writings. Familiarity with them will enhance readers' understanding of the breadth and depth of the Orthodox Christian Faith.

Review Quotes

Fr. Stephen De Young takes us on a voyage through the often forgotten, even downplayed cosmic and eschatological imagery of Christianity by introducing the modern reader to the extra-biblical literature considered worthwhile by the early Church. The groundwork done by Fr. Stephen to reawaken Christians to their own symbolic language is as inestimable as it is timely.

-Jonathan Pageau, The Symbolic World