Scripture and other Texts

My first blog of the semester! Yay for inspiration and insight :)

I'm finally taking the New Testament (NT) class on the Gospels (which I'm way ready for) and in reading again about the process of canonization (how the books that are in the NT got to be in the NT and not others) I was struck by something. The book The Writings of the New Testament cited an old fragment called the Muratorian Fragment which listed as authoritative most of the books we now call the NT. Yet it also included a few books that could be read and used by the faithful, but not read during worship (I interpret that to mean not read as scripture alongside the Torah). This is so cool to me because growing up my parents talked about this irritation at the notion that "God stopped speaking to us 2000 years ago." In other words, other sources can be just as inspired by God, and nurturing, inspiring, and enlightening to Christians. In the fragment there were also books that were not to be read.

This fragment from around 200 or 400 CE indicates that this is true to some extent. There is a difference between scripture and other resources. But those other resources are still valuable. Other resources can be used to be inspired and know God better, and they should always be read in light of the Scripture. That way we can determine which resources, or which parts of resources are good and what should not be used. This inspired me to more comfort with some of the other early church writings all the way up to contemporary literature as useful for small groups, devotions, and more. Even Christian non-fiction which I enjoy :)

I've been doing this, but it was fun to find something to tie that practice to from the early church.