[Note: This is one post in a series on Greg Boyd’s book Letters from a Skeptic: A Son Wrestles with his Father’s Questions About Christianity. The aim of these posts is to help you start conversations with people in your community. Invite someone to read this book with you and discuss it together. You don’t need to agree with each other or the author to benefit from doing this type of activity.]
For this session, we’ll cover Correspondences 21-23
SUMMARY
In these letters, Greg and his dad discuss the formation of the canon and the reasons for assuming the Bible should be valued above other holy books. Edward raises questions that many people have about the selection of the books of the Bible. For example, why did the church wait until the 5th century to identify the canonical books? Or, why are there differences between the Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox collections?
Both of these questions have solid answers, as Greg demonstrates. The canon of the Bible was officially identified in the 5th century but they only affirmed what was largely agreed upon since the 2nd century. The differences between the canon is a reaction to the Protestant reformation of Martin Luther. The Catholic church had long distinguished between the apocryphal books and the rest of the Bible. Many Christians still consider the apocryphal books to be beneficial reading but not inspired.
INTRIGUING QUOTES
While your presentation of Christ and the Bible has been very compelling to me, I still have a lot of hurdles to jump before I can leap onto your ship of faith. -Edward, December 11, 1990
The New Testament forms an incredible monument which stays very much intact, even if some noteworthy stones are removed. -Greg December 28, 1990
Narrow-mindedness does not attach to what you believe, but how you believe it. If I refused to consider any perspective, any religious book, and any philosophy which disagreed with my own, that would be narrow-minded. But just because I hold to a belief that disagrees with other perspectives, other religious books, and other philosophies doesn’t itself make me narrow. -Greg, March 15, 1991
CONVERSATION STARTERS
What do you think about how the canon was selected?
Greg emphasizes relationship with Jesus over the need to answer every question. What do you think about this approach?
If you’d like more questions, make sure you pick up a copy of the book. It has several questions for each correspondence.
Next week we’ll cover correspondences 24-25