Journal «Apocrypha. Le champ des apocryphes». Bibliographical Review. Part 1: 1990–1991

Abstract

The study of apocryphal literature, old and new testamentical, and also gnostic, is important for theology, biblical studies and the history of religions. Even in ancient times it was recognized that the apocrypha contain the material of tradition, but their character of mixing orthodoxy with heterodoxy did not allow the Church fathers to include them in the canon, and therefore their reception was carried out through the selection of motifs in oral tradition, painting, etc. At present, these written documents serve as a source for both church tradition and the history of heresies and non-Christian religious movements. The scientific journal «Apocrypha» has been published in the Belgian publishing house «Brepols» (Turnhout) since 1990. The task of establishing this periodical was, according to the editors, «to transform the old object of erudition into a new subject for historical reconstruction». The first two issues of the journal present the mate rials of the symposium on apocryphal narrative in honor of the centenary of the Religious Studies Section of the École pratique deshautes études, held in Paris in 1986. These issues in general set the main coordinates of the study of apocryphal literature in the review of the history of the issue, in a selection of topics (separate, but leading to a broad perspective), in the system of terms, names and sigla.