The 1940 evangelical novel The Mystery of Mar Saba by James H. Hunter shares with a later, secular genre of novels I call gospel thrillers a common plot (the discovery of a new gospel from the first century and a race to prove or disprove its authenticity) but also common anxieties about biblical authority mapped onto geopolitical, theological,…[Read more]

An exploration of the paradoxical celebrity of ascetic renunciants in early Christianity, using the example of Simeon Stylites, the pillar saint.

Writing Demetrias: Ascetic Logic in Ancient Christianity

Powerpoint accompanying invited presentation, “Gospel Thrillers: Fear, Desire, and the U.S. Bible” at Michigan State University, October 16, 2017

UPDATED (August 3, 2017) list of gospel thrillers with short descriptions.