I’ve been working for the last couple of weeks preparing a series of talks on the history of the formation of the Bible. (Technically – the Canon of Holy Scripture.) It’s been an interest of mine since I first encountered a copy of the Gospel of Thomas while a graduate student in Physics.

I’m giving the talks at Trinity, Bethlehem in the month of January, and as is typical, I’ve just come across a wonderful reference that would have made my life much easier if I had found it when I started.

The book is called “The Formation of the Christian Biblical Canon” by Lee M.
McDonald. McDonald is a Baptist preacher who started writing the book as a way of responding to the questions of his parishioners about why some books are in the Bible and some aren’t.

Here’s my favorite quote so far (and I’m writing this note to the list because I think it’s so topical to what we are experiencing today in the mainline denominations).

“The Canonical Authority of the biblical message will be discovered not in the academy, but in its loving and humble proclamation in the communities where people live. The biblical canon, which has never garnered full agreement in the church, is not the focus of Christian faith. The focus is the Christ who brings life and peace to those who have found a way to make the message of the biblical canon adaptable and renewable in ever changing circumstances.”

I suppose I’m so taken with it because I just finished my Sunday sermon (for which we are using the propers for Epiphany) and I have found myself discussing the idea of Saint Augustine of Hippo (loosely paraphrased) “Where the Holy Scripture seems to be in error when describing something that is otherwise proved true, then it is our interpretation of the Scriptures that is in error – not our understanding of the logical truth.”

Anyhow – that’s something to cogitate on tonight as we wait for the ball to drop.