Outside the Canon

Another subject that came up yesterday in Dr. McGrath's Sunday School class is the character of those writings that existed in the early Christian centuries but did not become part of the canon of Scripture. Possibly the best site to learn more about those other writings (some of which were excluded because they were deemed "heretical", but this is clearly not the case for all of them) is Early Christian Writings. I recommend it for anyone interested in exploring this particular subject further.

Sunday School August 31st 2008

Today in Dr. McGrath's class we continued considering the topic of what the Bible is. The discussion ranged from the topic of whether God still speaks today, and if so what the implications might be for our understanding of the canon, to the importance of historical events for the Christian faith.

Next time, we'll be looking at Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2, which provide an excellent example both of historical difficulties and of the relevance of cultural background to making sense of the Bible. Some of Dr. McGrath's class notes from a course on the historical figure of Jesus that he teaches at Butler University can be found online, and the ones about the infancy narratives are relevant to next Sunday's topic.

If we move at our usual slow pace, we'll still be talking about them at Christmas time, making the topic seasonal as well!

Comparing views of the Bible

In preparation for our first main topic in the "When Christians Disagree" series, I've posted some links reflecting different views of and approaches to the Bible among Christians. Hopefully those who are planning to attend will manage to at least glance at one short article from each category - just pick one at random, since it will be more interesting if different people have read different things!


Progressive/Liberal Christian
Borg, Marcus

• Audio and video interviews
• Reclaiming the Bible
• The Bible, literalism and the truth of Christianity
• Review of Reading the Bible Again for the First Time

Brown, Delwin, "Understanding Biblical Authority"
Dodd, C. H., The Bible Today
Common Sense Christianity: "The Bible"


Moderate Christian
Keck, Leander E., Taking the Bible Seriously
Bruggeman, Walter, "Biblical Authority"
Placher, William C., "Is the Bible True?"
Sanders, James A., "The Bible as Canon"
Taylor, Barbara Brown, "Caution: Bible Class in Session"
Noyce, Gaylord, "Bible Stories, Literalists and the Sunday School"
Hyers, Conrad, "Biblical Literalism"
Dayton, Donald W., "The Battle for the Bible"
Goodspeed, Edgar J., The Story of the New Testament
Fosdick, Harry Emerson, A Guide to Understanding the Bible
Davis & Hays, "Learning to Read the Bible Again"
Hays, Richard B., "Salvation by Trust"
Wink, Walter, "How I Have Been Snagged by the Seat of My Pants While Reading the Bible"
Newsom, Carol, "Probing Scripture"
Worden, Ronald D., "Taking the Bible on its Own Terms"
Christian Bible Reference Site: "What is the Bible?"; "How To Study the Bible


Conservative Christian
Bruce, F. F.

• "The Canon of the New Testament" (also here)
• "The Canon of Scripture"
• "Faith vs. Scientific Study of the Bible"

Johnston, Robert K.,

• Evangelicals at an Impasse
• "Unity and Diversity in Evangelical Theology"

Noll, Mark A., "Battle for the Bible"
Boa, Kenneth, "Is the Bible Trustworthy?"
Keathley, J. Hampton, "The Holy Canon of Scripture"
Packer, James I., "In Quest of Canonical Interpretation"
Dryness, William A., "How Does The Bible Function in the Christian Life?"
Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, "The Bible"
Don Carson mp3s (including two on the reliability of the New Testament)
Posts on inerrancy at Parchment and Pen blog


It was impossible to read all articles on even the above mentioned sites, and thus the characterization of the theological outlook of each may be imprecise or inaccurate. The categorizations are themselves problematic, since we are dealing with a spectrum of views rather than watertight categories.

I have also made available scans of excerpts from two books. The first represents an American Baptist moderate, with replies from a conservative and a liberal. The second is an excerpt from Keith Ward's book What the Bible Really Teaches which I found helpful. There is also a two part piece by Rudolf Bultmann on the Gospel message (Greek kerygma) and myth (i.e. a pre-scientific understanding of the world), which is part of a larger conversation on the subject, and which helpfully brings into focus the issues of the cultural and historical background of the Bible in relation to readers in our time. You may also want to take a look at some web materials I've created, including an interactive Bible textbook and a page entitled "Is the Bible true?"