I’m pleased to say that this week marks the one-year anniversary of Non-Canonical Christianity’s launch! Outside the blog, it’s been a year of tremendous and world-wide change, undoubtedly spearheaded by the effects of COVID-19. In a world of masks, vaccinations, and such tremendous shifting, it’s been a joy to work on the site. I hope you all have enjoyed reading it, too.
In the below post, I’m going to share some specifics about the year and the different topics that the site has covered. Interested in reading more? Click below to continue!
The Big Picture
The first Non-Canonical Christianity post was published May 10, 2020. At launch, the site was a hot mess; it performed poorly, had an unintuitive interface, and practically no graphics. Now, it’s… well, not tremendously better, actually. Small steps, people.
As the above chart shows, we peaked when launching. The site has never been terribly popular, which makes sense given its somewhat obscure focus. I’m hopeful that, as more content continues being written, more people will find their way here and find articles that they find interesting.
As of now, Non-Canonical Christianity is not monetized. I’m not earning money from Google Ads or Amazon affiliate marketing. I did briefly play around with the Amazon affiliate marketing as an option, but decided that my time was better spent focusing on creating a site worth reading and articles worth coming back to.
I think it’s possible to generate more traffic through the site, particularly if I were to be active on social media (primarily Twitter). That day may well come soon, but I’m not there yet– for now, my emphasis is to continue creating content for the site, so that there’s enough to merit visitors’ time.
Articles Created
In the first year of Non-Canonical Christianity’s existence, 14 articles were posted. That’s a little over one per month. Definitely lower than I would’ve liked– I’m aiming for weekly blog releases– but life outside the site has been incredibly dense as well and I had a few hiccups preventing me from investing the amount of time I would like. Hopefully that will change, though!
Of the articles written this year, the largest number were discussions of primary texts related to Non-Canonical Christianity:
- Baptism… God Is a Dyer? Fascinating Valentinian Argument
- Jesus Breaking Gender Rules in Thomas
- Sacrament of the Bridal Chamber: Strange Early Christian Practice?
- Scripture and Complexity– Jesus’ Powerful Argument
- Jesus Commands: Be Bold (in the Secret Book of James)
- Is This World Reality? Some Christians Said No!
- Secret and Shared Knowledge in The Treatise on Revelation
- Was the Serpent 100% Evil, or Covert Christ?
- Sethian Baptism, Astonishing in Difference with Modern Forms
- Hostile Demonic Power and Archons in the Gospel of Philip
Other articles discussed secondary literature:
- Bold Gnostic Thoughts About Jesus (and Homosexuality?) from Romans 1
- The Demiurge, Intriguing Solution to Hard Old Testament Problems
- Discover Paul’s Gnostic Argument in Romans 1
- Did Gnosticism Exist? Professor Williams’ Surprising Denial!
There wasn’t a huge amount of diversity within those posts– the same texts, primary and secondary, were often used. I’m hoping to bring more diversity to the pool of texts referenced in Year 2!
Vision for Year 2
My hope is that there will continue to be an emphasis on writings concerning primary texts. There is so much rich content to explore and such a variety of channels to interpret, it is hard to imagine ever running out of content.
As well, however, I intend to continue writing about other secondary texts, and perhaps even some tertiary ones. For example: Veritas has been sitting on my bookshelf for some time, and I’m looking forward to diving in and sharing my thoughts. That being said, there is such a wealth available on this topic in terms of secondary literature, that’s where I intend to invest more focus.
I’m excited for what the future holds! What about you? What things are you interested in reading more about? What topics do you wish there was more written regarding? Please feel free to share in the comments!