THE QUESTION OF CANON
By Michael J. Kruger
IVP/Apollos. 256 pages. £14.99
ISBN 978 1 783 590 049
The general academic consensus concerning the canon of the New Testament is that it was a later ecclesiastical production which took place in the second, third or even fourth century and was a move which was decidedly out of step with the original freewheeling spirit of early Christianity which depended on oral tradition and had an antipathy to written documents.
The idea is that our NT canon is a fabrication of the church imposed upon the available literature in circulation. It is therefore labelled the ‘extrinsic’ model of canon. This outlook totally subverts the conservative evangelical position with our emphasis on Scripture as the authoritative word of God. In this book, the author takes on the academic consensus. He does so by identifying five assumptions which underlie the contemporary liberal approach to the New Testament and exposing them to critical examination.
