What is our Canon?

The word "canon" comes from the Greek meaning, "a straight rod," or "a carpenter's rule." During Christianity's beginning it was used with the idea of a standard of opinion and/or practice. In time, "canon" came to be used as a testing rule in logic, art, ethics, and grammar. Finally, among Christians in 367 AD, "canon" came to reference the Scriptures... those that were accepted as God's inspired Word of God. Likewise, in time all other texts became known as "uncanonical" -- such as the books that compile the Apocrypha, and books like the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas.

Today, we take this stuff for granted. The Bible is the Bible, right? But there was a great struggle for the early church as they wrestled with what was canonical and what was not. In fact, this process took hundreds of years. The true "emergent church" of Christianity worked out this stuff for a long time as they wrestled with what is truly the boundaries of God's inspired Word.

Fast forward just shy of a couple thousand years, and you find another movement that has called itself the emergent church. This new brand of church has moved away from accepting propositional truth at face value and moved instead toward a "living truth" - that of community and experience. No more is there coloring within the lines; there is no longer neat categories and everything in it's place. Like a child finger-painting, the emergent church is embracing the messiness of spiritual life. As the emergent church sees the modern church taking it's last dying gasps of breath, it dreams of what could be in that great big world out there.

Just an observation, though: I wonder if the pendulum has swung the other way now? I wonder if this move toward community and experience for finding the boundaries of God's truth has left the emergent church looking for another canon? Does each community define it's own canon? Does this "canon" change for each community? Truly for the first couple hundred years after Jesus' life and ministry here, all sorts of Christian communities considered such books as The Shepherd of Hermas as inspired. But this is a bit different. I am curious about the future... If anything, to see this unfold will be like watching a child grow up.

*grabs the popcorn... grabs a comfy chair... dims the lights... presses play*