Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Canon Revisited: A Bit of Housekeeping


I’ve been working through Dr Michael Kruger’s Canon Revisited, (Michael J. Kruger, “Canon Revisited: Establishing the Origins and Authority of the New Testament Books”, Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books © 2012). My intention is to have something like a chapter-by-chapter summary that can easily be referred to. This is information where, it is true, Protestants generally are weak. Let’s be like John the Baptist: “Make his paths straight”.

My greater hope, though, is that you’ll buy the book, read it, and internalize it.

Just to keep track of things, here are links to previous posts taken from the work:






                                                                                                                               
There are four more chapters to discuss:

Apostolic Origins of the Canon

The Corporate Reception of the Canon: The Emergence of a Canonical Core

The Corporate Reception of the Canon: Manuscripts and Christian Book Production

The Corporate Reception of the Canon: Problem Books and Canonical Boundaries

These last four chapters are where the details are discussed, the “tumultuous history of the canon”.

My hope is to work through these carefully over the coming weeks; the details in these four chapters, as messy as they are, show the hand of God working in a mighty way to take control of his own Word, his own message.

None of this, I don’t think, is new. I’ve seen portions of what Dr Kruger writes here and there – in Oscar Cullmann, Herman Ridderbos, and Greg Bahnsen, among others. But what’s here is where all the details come together, in one place – history and doctrine and epistemology – to give Protestants a single focal point on the New Testament canon, a comprehensive response to the objection that Protestantism is somehow undermining itself in the acceptance of the New Testament canon.

Sola Scriptura is in the Bible.

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