Canon Law and the Canon of Scripture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v2i2.209Keywords:
Catholic Church, Meerten B. ter Borg, canon, social controlAbstract
Meerten B. ter Borg argued that canons function as a means of social control. The success of a canon follows not from the assent or agreement of the populace, but rather from the embedded quasi-personal relationship that produces a sense of belonging and identity. The objectified canon takes over this quasi-personal feature, which guarantees a canon’s sanctity. Calling scripture or law “canonical” thus transcendentalizes a text and allows it to retain a sacred quality that in turn effects social control through a shared sense of belonging. This thesis is confirmed and elaborated through a review of the conceptions of canon operative in the Catholic Church during the thirteenth, the sixteenth, and the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In all these periods, the Catholic Church modified its conception of the canonical nature of both its scriptures and its laws in order to strengthen corporate identity and to establish order and control within and without its perimeter.
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Blink, Herman van den. 1996. “Biblical Message and Church Law—a Fruitful Tension.” In From Life to Law: Concilium (5), ed. James Provost and Knut Walf, 3-11. London: SCM Press, 1996.
Borg, M. B. ter. 1998. “Canon and Social Control.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 411-23.
Buckley, J. M. 1967. “Canon Law,” in New Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 3, 29-34. Washington: Catholic University of America Press.
Coriden, James. 1991. An Introduction to Canon Law. New York: Paulist Press.
Corpus Juris Canonici. 1980. Ed. Francis Germovnik. Ottawa: Université Saint-Paul, Faculté de droit canonique.
Council of Trent. Available at http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/ TRENT4.htm (accessed 18 June 2007).
Della Rocca, Fernando. 1959. Manual of Canon Law. Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co.
Dulles, Avery. 1973. “The Bible in the Church: Some Debated Questions.” In The Bible and the Charismatic Renewal, ed. George Martin, 5-27. Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books.
Farmer,William. 1995. “State Interesse and Marcan Primacy.” In Biblical Studies and the Shifting of Paradigms 1850–1914, ed. H. G. Reventlow, 15-49. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Granfield, David. 1988. The Inner Experience of Law: A Jurisprudence of Subjectivity. Washington: Catholic University of America Press.
Halbertal, Moshe. 1997. The People of the Book. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Heintschel, Donald. 1984. “…A New Way of Thinking.” The Jurist 44: 41-47.
LaVerdiere, Eugene. 1983. “Fundamentalism: A Pastoral Concern.” The Bible Today 21: 5-11.
Legendre, P. 1998. “La totémisation de la société: remarques sur les montages canoniques et la question du sujet.” In van der Kooij and van der Toorn 1998, 425-33.
Leo XIII, Pope. Providentissimus Deus. Available at http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Leo13/113provi.htm (accessed 18 June 2007).
McKenna, Kevin. 1998. The Ministry of Law in the Church Today. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press.
Orsy, Ladislaus, SJ. 1990. “Theology and Law.” The Jurist 50: 402-34.
-----. 2000. “The Papacy for an Ecumenical Age.” America 183: 8-11 (Oct. 21, 2000).
Pius IX, Pope. 1864. Syllabus of Errors. Available at http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius09/p9syll.htm (accessed 18 June 2007).
Pius X, Pope. 1907. Pascendi Dominici Gregis. Available at http://www.ewtn.com/library/ENCYC/P10PASCE.HTM (accessed 18 June 2007).
Pius XII, Pope. 1943. Divino Afflante Spiritu. Available at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xii/encyclicals/documents/hf_pxii_enc_30091943_divino-afflante-spiritu_en.html (accessed 18 June 2007).
Pontifical Biblical Commission. 1958. Rome and the Study of Scripture, 6th ed. St. Meinrad, IN: Grail Publications.
-----. 1993. The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church and Address of His Holiness John Paul II. Boston: Pauline Books.
Pulcini, Theodore. 1998. Exegesis as Polemical Discourse: Ibn Hazm on Jewish and Christian. Scriptures. Atlanta: Scholars Press.
Reichel, Oswald. 1896. Complete Manual of Canon Law: Volume 1. London: John Hodges Press.
Schultenover, David, SJ. 1993. A View from Rome: On the Eve of the Modernist Crisis. New York: Fordham University Press.
Sheets, John, 1978. Ministry, Spirituality, and the Canon Lawyer. Studia Canonica 12:57-71.
Sheppard, Gerald T. 1987. Canon. In The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. M. Eliade, 3:62-69. New York: MacMillan.
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon. In Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown, 36-52. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Van der Kooij, A., and J. van der Toorn, eds. 1998, Canonization and Decanonization. Leiden: Brill.
Vatican Council II. Lumen Gentium. Available at http://www/ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/V2CHURCH.HTM (accessed 18 June 2007).
Woestman, William, ed. 1994. Papal Allocutions to the Roman Rota, 1939–1994. Ottawa: St. Paul University Press.
Published
2008-03-14
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Heyman, G. (2008). Canon Law and the Canon of Scripture. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 2(2-3), 209-225. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v2i2.209
