A modern canon?

4/10/15 EDIT:

After going over some scholarship on the development and formation of the canon, I think it is important to clarify a few terms, times and misconceptions.

First, on the subject of timeline, the new testament canon was nearly universally accepted by the third century, as the letters (John's revelation and last 7 in particular) finally made their way around through the churches and were taken as direct inspiration.  The 1825 date I refer to is only when the apocrypha were no longer included as edifying literature by protestants.

Second, with respect to the title of this post, it would be more appropriate to title it, "Personal edifying literature", or "Personal apocrypha."  This is not only more accurate in light of doctrine of canon and its development, but it is closer in theme to what I was hoping to accomplish with this post.  My thought was to explore the literature that has been personally influential in each of our lives--that which causes us to think deeper thoughts of God.  To suggest that the canon needs an "update" or changes is not what I meant to imply.

With that, here is my personal apocrypha:

The church decided on the canon that protestants affirm over centuries.  This canon in particular has remained the same since 1825 at latest, when the apocrypha were no longer included at all (they had been often included, though noted non-canonical).

Since 1825 however, and indeed since the middle ages, a great portion of literature has been written pertaining to theological themes and the human condition in relation to God or a divine being.

I don't mean to be heretical here, but rather to give pause and think about what a modern canon might look like--divine inspiration is a mysterious topic in any case, and who am I to put it in a box?  From the meager reading that I have done, I would include the following expressions of the human condition,
     how it is to relate to "other",
          to the divine
               and our own place in the cosmos
                    (for this is what I understand the essence of the Bible to be):

  1. the Brothers K by David James Duncan

This novel is a beautiful story of one American family before, during and after the Vietnam War.  Each member responds differently to their own crises and to the rest of the family.  They are broken people--some respond in faith, others in anger and wrath, shutting everyone out--and their journey is remarkable.

  2. Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller

I was given this book by my friend Justin Beck upon graduation from high school.  Miller tells a number of stories and vignettes about belief, confession, romance, magic, problems and love (the names of some chapters in fact).  It's an honest look at the journey of one man: funny, relatable and raw.

  3. Night by Eli Wiesel

Wiesel recounts his experience of the Holocaust in this dark, grim read.  Night brings to light some of the worst that humans have done to each other from the eyes of one of the descendents of Abraham.  Life is not always good.

  4. The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a play that recounts the Salem witch trials within a community of faith.  Miller shows both the best and most reprehensible actions that men and women claiming the cross will take in the name of their faith, however misguided they may be.  Some lines that I have always found to give me shivers:

    End of Act III

Proctor, his mind wild, breathless: I say--I say--God is dead!
Parris: Hear it, hear it!
Proctor, laughs insanely, then: A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face!  And it is my face, and yours, Danforth!  For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud--God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!

     Middle of Act IV

Hale, continuing to Elizabeth: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor - cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God's judgement in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride. Will you plead with him? I cannot think he will listen to another.

  5. Letter from a Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King writes from jail after his arrest, on April 16, 1963.  He expounds on the injustice in America that people of color face and on the systems and people that facilitate it.  The letter is written (and addressed even) to fellow clergymen, the church as a call to action and a reminder of what the church is.  Some selected portions:

But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their "thus saith the Lord" far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid.

In deep disappointment I have wept over the laxity of the church. But be assured that my tears have been tears of love. There can be no deep disappointment where there is not deep love. Yes, I love the church. How could I do otherwise? I am in the rather unique position of being the son, the grandson and the great grandson of preachers. Yes, I see the church as the body of Christ. But, oh! How we have blemished and scarred that body through social neglect and through fear of being nonconformists.

But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.

I hope this letter finds you strong in the faith. I also hope that circumstances will soon make it possible for me to meet each of you, not as an integrationist or a civil-rights leader but as a fellow clergyman and a Christian brother. Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away and the deep fog of misunderstanding will be lifted from our fear drenched communities, and in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.

   6. Love Wins by Rob Bell

 I wrote this bit last and with trepidation; there is so much bitterness and division among Christians over Bell's book--it is truly polarizing.  Many say it is heretical and promotes universalism.  Many of its harshest critics have also not read it.

My reading of "Love Wins" exposed me to questions I had never thought or dared to ask about God, Heaven and Hell.  To me, that was the point of this book.  It is not to provide answers, but to ask difficult questions--some we may never know the answers to.  I don't vilify Bell for writing it.  I'm thankful he dared to ask.  I hope you'll dare to read it, and have an open mind.

   7. City Upon a Hill by John Winthrop

Part of Winthrop's "A Model of Christian Charity" sermon, given in passage to the Massachusetts Bay Colony.  American exceptionalism aside, Winthrop calls for unity among the body of colonists, and in God:

for wee must Consider that wee shall be as a Citty upon a Hill, the eies of all people are uppon us; soe that if wee shall deale falsely with our god in this worke wee have undertaken and soe cause him to withdrawe his present help from us, wee shall be made a story and a byword through the world, wee shall open the mouthes of enemies to speake evill of the wayes of god and all professours for Gods sake

  8. Annabel Lee by Edgar Allen Poe

The memory from a lover of their beloved--the narrator blames the world and kinsmen and the wind for the death of Annabel Lee, and even scorns the envy of angels and demons.  The poem is a beautiful, lilting story of human love and loss:

And neither the angels in Heaven above

Nor the demons down under the sea

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

  9. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Somewhat self explanatory, the Chronicles are a look at the kingdom of heaven through an alternate universe.  Lewis himself denied them as allegory, writing to a Mrs. Hook (the following quotation is taken from wikipedia):

'What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?' This is not allegory at all.

10. To Be Alone With You by Sufjan Stevens

This song is simple.  At its heart is sacrificial love.  Stevens makes a hauntingly beautiful statement.  The album in its entirety could be included as modern psalms.  And that is a topic for another post.

My short list is woefully incomplete.  What would you include?  What do you hate about my list?  Add a comment or write your own and link it!