Re-Forming Canon

            As we have discussed in class prior, the subject of canon is an extremely complicated one, and it is often defined differently for different people.  Canon does not seem to be a real thing, the more and more we talk about it, and the more I have learned about it.  The development of the printing press and mass-produced texts have certainly aided in the solidification of the text that we now know as the Bible, but this solidification does not mean that the Biblical Canon has become immovably fixed. The canon has been broadened more than once after the printed versions of the Bible began circulating.  Notably, in America, where two new branches and texts have been produced.  These new groups, Mormons and the followers of the teachings of Christian Science, each have their own text, one as a replacement for the Bible, the other as an extra-biblical guide to the text.

            Though The Book of Mormon is not an addition to the canon, it relies heavily upon the text of the Christian Bible, and is singularly focused upon Jesus.  This text seems to me to be much like some of the apocrypha; it does not tell the same tales as the text of the Canon Bible, but it is heavily influenced by and refers to those texts in many places.

            Mary Baker Eddy’s text Health and Science is a guide of sorts to reading the Bible.  This text seems to be not unlike the Bible with notes that circulated heavily around the reformation.  The notes, or guide in this case, are the focus as much as the actual text.

            When there are cases like these, with texts supplementing and replacing the Canonical Bible text, the idea that it is a closed, fixed, canon washes away.  The Canon is canon to those who follow it, but it is not a universally finished piece.  Instead, it is more open scripture, to be taken in whatever way that suits its readers best.