"Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England is elegantly written, well researched, and on point with the most up-to-date scholarship on early English homiletics, vernacular preaching, and studies in early medieval religious and lay piety. Brandon W. Hawk’s claim that homilies comprised one of the earliest forms of "mass media" allows him to situate his study within a fascinating theoretical framework of media studies, with appropriate emphasis on networks and media archaeology. This book will serve as an important resource for students and scholars interested in the history of preaching, and especially early forms of vernacular devotion."

"Brandon W. Hawk builds on recent work demonstrating the prevalence of apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England, and takes the scholarly conversation a significant step further. Notably, Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England situates apocryphal narratives at the heart of Anglo-Saxon sermon literature and makes very judicious use of media studies theory to show how these texts were used. Advancing our understanding, Hawk challenges any simplistic categorizations of apocrypha."

"Brandon W. Hawk's Preaching Apocrypha in Anglo-Saxon England is an exemplary study of the integral role that Christian apocrypha plays in the religious media of the period. The book combines the best of traditional methods with contemporary theory, namely network theory and media studies, and tools, such as data visualization. In so doing, it profitably uses contemporary theoretical approaches and detailed readings of Latin and Old English to provoke and elucidate connections between and among a disparate temporal and generic range of material."