When modern European missionaries arrived in India in the eighteenth century, they were astonished to discover Christian communities that traced their origins back to Thomas. How and when did Christianity spread eastwards? The earliest answer can be found in the pages of The Acts of Thomas. The Acts of Thomas is one of five surviving apocryphal acts along with Andrew, John, Peter, and Paul that recount the adventures of the apostles as they carried the Christian message to the far reaches of their world. The well-known Hymn of the Pearl, widely regarded as an allegory of the soul on its journey, from God and back to God, is found in its pages. (http://www.amazon.com/Acts-Thomas-Early-Christian-Apocrypha/dp/1598150219)
Darrell L. Bock suggests the real lost gospel is the one already found in the Bible and reminds everyone of what it means: good news. --from publisher description.
The Acts of Peter, one of the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles that detail the exploits of the key figures of early Christianity, provides a unique window into the formation of early Christian narrative. Like the Gospels, the Acts of Peter developed from disparate oral and written narrative from the first century. The apocryphal text, however, continued to develop into a number of re-castings, translations, abridgements, and expansions. The Acts of Peter present Christian narrative in an alternate universe, in which canonization did not halt the process of creative re-composition. Now, in this groundbreaking book, Thomas examines the sources and subsequent versions of the Acts, from the earliest traditions through the sixth-century Passions of the Apostles, arguing the importance of its "narrative fluidity": the existence of the work in several versions or multiforms. This feature, shared with the Jewish novels of Esther and Daniel, the Greek romance about Alexander the Great, and the Christian Gospels, allows these narratives to adapt to accommodate the changing historical circumstances of their audiences. In each new version, the audiences' defining conflicts were reflected in the text, echoing a historical consciousness more often identified with primary oral societies, in which the account of the past is a malleable script explaining the present. Although the genre most closely comparable to these works is the ancient novel, their serious historical intent separates them from the later, more self-consciously fictive novels, and maintains them within the realm of the earlier historical novels produced by ethnic subcultures within the Roman empire.
In St. Thomas and India, renowned scholars trace the historical, religious, and cultural connections link India's Syrian Christian community with St. Thomas the Apostle. They use modern historiographical methods seek to corroborate the ancient tradition that tells of St. Thomas's missionary journey to India in the middle of the first century, in which he established seven churches in some of the major commercial centers of Malabar. From this first churches, Christianity spread throughout the region. St. Thomas in India also examines the legacy of the ancient Christianity on the Syrian community in India today, as well as exploring the various cultural and religious connections between the Syrian church in Indian and other ancient churches in the east.
THE BOOK OF THOMAS THE DOUBTER: Uncovering the Secret Teachings is a biblical, historical novel based on the Gospel of Thomas and Acts of Thomas uncovered among the ancient Nag Hammadi texts. The book depicts Thomas carrying out Jesus' secret teachings as a disciple and as an apostle in India. In India, there are sites and landmarks commemorating Thomas. Also in India are the Thomas Christians (the Syrian Nasrani), affirming their founder as the disciple Thomas.
Susan E. Myers concentrates on two prayers, strikingly similar in style and content, found in the third-century Acts of Thomas. Each prayer is located in the context of Christian initiation and each is addressed to a feminine deity who is asked to "come" to be present in the ritual. The prayers appeal to the feminine Spirit, who is called "Mother," "fellowship of the male," and "dove," among other titles. The author examines these prayers in their historical, literary, and liturgical contexts, challenging some of the prevailing assumptions about Syriac-speaking Christianity in general, and the Acts of Thomas in particular.
