What is the Apocrypha — and why it matters for religious diversity.

False, spurious, doubtful, secret, shady. There’s much unflattering talk around the Apocrypha, but what are they, really? Objectively, the Christian Apocrypha is a body of ancient religious texts that didn’t become part of the biblical canon but circulated widely among early Christians. They were fun, entertaining and also considered wise or sacred for some. Eventually, male leaders from the emerging Catholic Church, the Church Fathers, started separating them from sacred biblical texts, and labeling them as prohibitive or, in the best…