Andrew S. Jacobs is a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. He is the author of several books including, most recently, Epiphanius of Cyprus: A Cultural Biography of Late Antiquity and is editor of the Cambridge University Press series Elements in Religion in Late Antiquity.

Abstract:

Since the 1960s, fictional thrillers centered on the shocking discovery of a first-century gospel have appeared regularly in the United States. What do these novels tell us about the fears and desires surrounding biblical knowledge in U.S. popular culture, and how do these fears and desires emerge from, and elucidate, similar fears and desires in the professional guild of biblical studies?