The Ascetic Subculture of the Acts of Thomas and His Wonderworking Skin

Abstract In a fourth- or fifth-century narrative known as the Acts of Thomas and his Wonderworking Skin , Jesus sells apostle slave to governor India. When governor’s wife converts Christianity, dumps all her earthly riches outside front door, turns celibate, has tortured skin flayed off, but survives, uses peeled-off raise dead. This paper Kathryn Tanner’s concept culture compare ideals advocated by this story – servitude Christ, voluntary poverty, sexual abstinence, readiness suffer, zeal for evangelization expressed in first-century Christian literature. The subculture is found consist entirely also New Testament, which are updated, recontextualized, radicalized order reach an audience Christians.