Description: "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."--
Brief description: Father Stephen De Young is the author of The Whole Counsel of God, God Is a Man of War, and The Religion of the Apostles from Ancient Faith Publishing. He is the pastor of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church (Antiochian) in Lafayette, Louisiana, and holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from Amridge University. He hosts the Whole Counsel of God podcast and cohosts the Lord of Spirits podcast on Ancient Faith Radio. He is also the author of the Whole Counsel blog on the Ancient Faith Ministries website.
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