Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
>
> I didn't realize, until I was checking up on the holy ghost that
> Athanasius (arch-enemy of Arianism--for those who don't know and don't
> care) was responsible for more or less finalizing the 27 books of the New
> Testament. I've got the OT pseudoapocrypha, but never looked into the
> NT apocrypha.
The Medieval theologians _almost_ performed a wonderful service for the modern world: they doubted the authenticity of Revelations (Apocalypse of St. John) and nearly excluded it from the Canon. A tremendous amount of modern religious idiocy is grounded in that work. It is amazing that such a wretched piece of writing (seen as theology or literature) should ever have achieved such status among English poets (and many modern critics). It was, incidentally, only one among innumerable such 'visions' written at about the same time. The first century c.e. must have been a wild and wooly time throughout the Roman & Greek worlds.
Carrol