Jim Davila comments that the likely reason for the Secret Gospel of Thomas subtitle for Elaine Pagels' book is marketing: "It's a sexy subtitle: secret Gospels sell well. But then, I'm a cynic". I'm sure Jim's right. Someone mentioned to me recently that it's a great idea to try to get "Jesus" into the title of your book if at all possible -- it'll double your sales. Since hearing that, I can't help noticing how many books inappropriately have Jesus in the title.
At least my book on Thomas will be about Thomas. Speaking of Thomas, I'm reading an excellent book at the moment by Risto Uro, Thomas: The Gospel of Thomas in Historical Context (London & New York: T & T Clark International, 2003). It's just out. Unfortunately very expensive -- £50 or $85 for 200 odd pages; I hope that's not the way that Continuum's prices are going to go. I picked it up cheap at the BNTC. I'll report on it when I've finished reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment