I'm busy reading Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities. It's an easy read with many issues being glossed, but still worth it. The best chapter is on "The Invention of Scripture" where he deals with several pertinent elements, and makes some good points. A few quotes to get the brains tinkering away...
Why were these 27 books included, and not any others? Who decided which books to include? On what basis? And when? It is one thing for believers to affirm, on theological grounds, that the decisions about the canon, like the books themselves, were divinely inspired, but it is another thing to look at the actual history of the process and to ponder the long, drawn-out arguments over which books to include and which to reject. The process did not take a few months, or years. It took centuries, and even then there was no unanimity.[1]
[1] Ehrman, Lost Christianities, pg. 230
2 comments:
The process did not take a few months, or years. It took centuries, and even then there was no unanimity.
Facts that need to be looked squarely in the face!
Sean,
I've got this book on my "to-be-read-before-end-of-the-year-list", please keep giving me snippets and updates to encourage me.
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