Forbidden Gospels Blog

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Featured Posts About My Publications

New Series from Baylor

Rorotoko Interview

Gnosis 2.1 is published!

Gnostic New Age is Published!

Secret Religion is released!

Gnosis: Journal of Gnostic Studies

Finding Jesus and the Gospel of Judas

Book Note: Histories of the Hidden God (DeConick and Adamson)

Book Note: Practicing Gnosis (eds. April DeConick, Gregory Shaw and John Turner)

Spaying the Mother God

Another book review for Holy Misogyny

A Book Review of Holy Misogyny

A first review of Holy Misogyny

Holy Misogyny is out!

Kindle Edition of Holy Misogyny

Starting up the new academic year with a new book

Holy Misogyny cover

The Codex Judas Papers

My Debut in BAR

Review of The Thirteenth Apostle

Revised Version of 13th Apostle NOW available

Featured Book Notes

Book Note: The Glory of the Invisible God by Andrei Orlov

Book Note: The Greatest Mirror (by Andrei Orlov)

Book Note: Cognitive Science and the New Testament (István Czachesz)

Book Note: Fakes, Forgeries, and Fictions (Tony Burke, ed.)

Finally, the Cambridge Handbook on Western Mysticism and Esotericism is published

Book Note: Divine Scapegoats by Andrei Orlov

Rasimus writes a book review on Apocalypse of An Alien God

Book Note: The Open Mind (edited by Jonathan Knight and Kevin Sullivan)

John's Gospel and Intimations of Apocalyptic, edited by Catrin Williams and Christopher Rowland

Cognitive Round Up: Why God Won't Go Away

Comparing Religions, by Jeffrey Kripal

Book Note: Histories of the Hidden God (DeConick and Adamson)

Book Note: Practicing Gnosis (eds. April DeConick, Gregory Shaw and John Turner)

Book Note: Heavenly Priesthood in the Apocalypse of Adam

Book Note: Who Do People Say That I Am? (Vernon K. Robbins)

Who was Paul really?

Book Note: Introduction to "Gnosticism" (Denzey Lewis)

Book Note: Revelations by Elaine Pagel

Book Note: Esotericism and the Academy (Wouter J. Hanegraaff)

Book Note: Dark Mirrors by Andrei A. Orlov

Book Note: The Apocryphal Gospels (Ehrman and Plese)

Book Note: The Gnostic 4

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Book Note: Anthony LeDonne, Historical Jesus

Book Note: David Halperin has just published a novel

Mellon Seminar Reflection 13: Embodiment and the Humanities

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Mellon Seminar webpage

Book Note: With Letters of Light (Arbel and Orlov, eds.)

Book Note: Voices of Gnosticism (Miguel Connor)

Book Note: Die Gnosis (Johanna Brankaer)

A new Coptic grammar by Johanna Brankaer

Digital images of Nag Hammadi collection

May 04, 2011/ April DeConick

Here is the link to the digital images of the Nag Hammadi collection in case you need access. They are uploaded on the web at

Claremont Colleges Digital Library

Photo from

CCDL Claremont Libraries

April D. DeConick

Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity since 2006

Chair of the Department of Religion at Rice University 2013-2019

Figure Foundation Book Award for The Gnostic New Age: How a Countercultural Spirituality Revolutionized Religion From Antiquity to Today (New York: Columbia University Press 2016)

Grant Recipient with James McGrath and Charles Häberl, National Endowment for the Humanities, The Mandaean Book of John: Critical Edition, Translation, and Commentary, 2012-14

Co-Founder and Executive Editor of GNOSIS: Journal of Gnostic Studies (Leiden: Brill) since 2015

Editorial Board of Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press) since 2019

Editorial Board for Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies (Leiden: Brill) since 2008

Grant recipient and Faculty Leader of Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Research Seminar, Emerging Religions 2017-2019

Chair, Society of Biblical Literature, Committee for the Status of Women in the Profession, 2016-2018

Research Fellow in the Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious 2014-2015

Associate Editor for Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks on Religion, ten-volumes, 2016

Faculty in the Center for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality, Rice University, since 2006

Grant recipient and Faculty Leader of Andrew W. Mellon Graduate Research Seminar, Mapping Death, 2010-2012

Associate Editor for Vigiliae Christianae, Journal and Monograph series (Leiden: Brill) 2014-2015

Co-chair of Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section, Society of Biblical Literature, 2012-2018

Founding Chair and Member of Steering Committee of Mysticism, Esotericism and Gnosticism in Antiquity Section, Society of Biblical Literature since 1996

Member of Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, Society of Biblical Literature, 2012-2018

Founder of the Cognition and Culture in the Humanities Workshop, Rice University, 2011-2013

29th Annual Loy Witherspoon Lecturer, University of North Carolina 2013

Centennial Lecturer for Rackham School of Graduate Studies, University of Michigan 2012

Edgar and Dorothy Davidson Annual Lecturer, Carleton University 2009

Member of Phi Kappa Phi Honors Society since 2002

Member of Phi Beta Kappa Honors Society since 1988

Affiliated with the Society of Biblical Literature since 1987

Affiliated with the International Association for Coptic Studies since 2006

Affiliated with the North American Patristics Society since 2006

Affiliated with the American Academy of Religion since 2007

Affiliated with the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism since 2016