During the centuries since the founding of Christianity, there have been different traditions of faith. These traditions were in a state of constant change, with different schools developing with their own authoritative scriptures. Christians used and created sacred texts in large quantities and called them gospels. Today, these alternative writings amaze with their original and sometimes shocking ideas. Some tried to ban and destroy texts that found themselves outside the official ideology, while others tried to save and preserve them. What was the fate of the forbidden fruits of faith? What secrets do the apocrypha keep about real Christianity? Do they continue to compete with the canonical books of the church today? Philip Jenkins invites the reader to look beyond traditional ideas to learn more about how followers of Jesus lived and believed at different times in different parts of the world, and how apocryphal texts have influenced world culture, from the creators of great classical works of art to the enterprising authors of modern scandalous novels .