The Crucified Book: Sacred Writing in the Age of Valentinus

Valentinian Christians, Kreps argues, effaced the distinctions between human being and text and among Christian, Jewish, and other revelatory books: "The body-as-book, then, signaled a mode of holy book that resisted Irenaeus's call for a fixed collection of written texts" (p. 117). C...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Catholic Historical Review Vol. 108; no. 4; pp. 789 - 790
Main Author Brakke, David
Format Journal Article Book Review
LanguageEnglish
Published Washington The Catholic University of America Press 22.09.2022
Catholic University of America Press
Subjects
Christianity
Christians
Jewish people
Literature
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Summary:Valentinian Christians, Kreps argues, effaced the distinctions between human being and text and among Christian, Jewish, and other revelatory books: "The body-as-book, then, signaled a mode of holy book that resisted Irenaeus's call for a fixed collection of written texts" (p. 117). Chapter 2 examines the implications of understanding the book as at once divine, human, and textual for how Valentinian Christians wrote, read, and transmitted sacred texts (their scriptural practices). Nonetheless, as Kreps notes, I coined the term "scriptural practices" a decade ago as an invitation to scholars to write less teleological histories of the New Testament and early Christian literature.
ISSN:0008-8080
1534-0708
DOI:10.1353/cat.2022.0115