Vatican Unhappy with Apocrypha in the Media
A Reuters article in an Australian on-line news source reports that the Vatican is not happy with coverage of the church by the media. In an interview, a “top aide to Pope Benedict” registers an objection to how the CA are being used in books and films:
The apocryphal gospels used as sources for popular books and films were not new discoveries but well-known books written a century or two after the original gospels, he said.
Authors who try to sow confusion between these two different sources profit from religious ignorance," he said.
This is nothing new, however; indeed the preface to M.R.James’ “Apocryphal NT” rebukes Hone, his predecessor, for doing just this for cash. What is more worrying is when people funded by the taxpayer to teach and research use their positions in this way. But again, this too is hardly new.
Roger: um..should I be offended? Are you saying that academics who value the CA (or in the Vatican aide’s words, “sow[ing] confusion between these two different sources”) are guilty of some offense? Or are you objecting only to particular scholars with particular agendas? i.e., the more radical of us who claim the CA are *more valuable* and *more historical* than canonical texts?