Fan Fiction and Early Christian Writings - by Tom de Bruin (Hardcover)

About the Book

"What can contemporary media fandoms, like Anne Rice, Star Wars, Batman, or Sherlock Holmes, tell us about ancient Christianity? Proposing an ingenious analysis, Tom de Bruin argues that disparaging terms applied to ancient Christian derivative texts, such as fakes, forgeries or corruptions, are not sufficient to capture the production, consumption, and value of these writings. He instead suggests seeing them as analogous to contemporary fan fiction, and explores the analogies between current fan fiction and Christian pseudepigrapha, apocrypha and other secondary texts-and their limits"--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

"In the study of the New Testament and Christian origins, analyses of rewriting texts and stories and assessing their authoritative status (or lack thereof) are long established. Yet modern scholarship has an insular tendency, avoiding discussions across the broader humanities, not least in fan studies. Tom de Bruin has shown how much of a loss this has been by providing a well-informed and sophisticated comparison between fan fiction and early Christian writings. This vital contribution pushes forward key critical questions in new directions. Why did people expand inherited stories? What were their goals? How were they received? Were they perceived to be authoritative or dangerous frauds?" --James Crossley, Academic Director of CenSAMM, University of Cambridge, UK, Professor of Bible and Society, MF Oslo, Norway and Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's College London, UK

"As an introduction of fan studies to biblical scholars and a demonstration of its usefulness, de Bruin's monograph succeeds powerfully.... I was impressed by their command of the growing field. It is rare to find a scholar of ancient religion who demonstrates such broad proficiency with an entirely distinct field of modern media studies, and I would wholeheartedly recommend the monograph to anyone interested in the intersection of these disciplines." --Esther Brownsmith, University of Dayton, USA, Bible and Critical Theory Journal

About the Author

Tom de Bruin (he/they) is Assistant Professor of New Testament and Early Judaism at Radboud University, The Netherlands.