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June 8, 2007
Why The Need for a Canon
John Hobbins at Ancient Hebrew Poetry has launched what promises to be a great and comprehensive discussion of "canon." His first post has set an exceptionally high standard. It has also generated a lot of comment. John links to much of that comment in his "First Update" post and there is more in the comments section of the first post. In that update post, he says something that triggered my own abnormal thoughts.
Most people come at the subject matter from a defensive or apologetic point of view. I am more interested in understanding how canons function in real life.
My question is not so much how religious canon's "function in real life" as why they function at all. My question is more psychological than historical or sociological. Why do some sets of humans seem to need an authoritative set of literature? Why do some of us need to think that god, the gods or some special person makes certain literature authoritative in the way that canonization does?
Let's look at John's functional definition of canon,
A writing is canonical if and only if passages from it can be appealed to for the purpose of establishing a point of doctrine.
Not only is this a good working definition, it reflects the reality of the process of canonization. But why would anyone or any group want to do that? I don't have answers, just questions. If there is an answer, I think it lies in the general neighborhood of the psychological basis for the persuasiveness of arguments from authority. A written authority, often, but not always, of obscure origin replaces a human authority. And it does it precisely in those areas of human thought where no human can be authoritative: religious doctrine.
I hope my question is neither defensive nor apologetic.
Update: June 9, 2007
Fixed the spelling of "authoritative" Thanks to Tim Bulkeley. Also see Tim's remarks.
Posted by Duane Smith at June 8, 2007 3:26 PM | Read more on Religion |
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Comments
Personally, I think canon and tradition work similarly to how ritual works --- more anthropological and sociological than simply psychological. However, I agree that your question of why they function at all is a better place to start.
Posted by: Jim Getz at June 9, 2007 6:28 PM
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