Markets Are Conversations; The Church in Dialogue

The Church is a "conversation".  The history of God's dealiing with humanity.  That is a conversation.  The attempts to embody that in Christendom have resulted in generations of documents collected together to form the Bible.   That "canon";  that body of approved and selected works was "closed" by the Middle Ages.   I have often wondered over the years about that.  I have wondered how that would fly today if it had NOT been closed,  and it were only now being considered.  Who would decide what was to be included?  The theological public is WAY too large,  and the diversity of opinion would precipitate such a debate that the question would no longer be "closable".  

When the canon was "closed",  there was very little question,  and very little argument about who was "authority".  But even as late as Martin Luther, in the ealy 1500's, there was evidence that the canonical choices were not universally revered (he called the Letter to James "the epistle of straw"--- hardly evident of a view that this scripture was inspired,  much less "verbally inspired").  It is understandable that such a "body of literature" was to be desired.  Communication technologies were limited,  and the idea or vision of an informed laity was not yet widespread.  Some strategy of communicating a basic and yet universal message was desired. 

I have to wonder how the canonical questions would have been expored in the context of today's communication capabilities.  Indeed,  prior to that,  how the collected writings themselves would have been shaped by the existence of a system like today's World Wide Web.  To some,  to ponder such questions would be considered blasphemous to a view of Scripture handed down precisely as God intended,  to be "metered out" to the masses in some "feeding" fashion.  The whole notion of dialogue in the ancient context was alien to the "document writing" and "communication" of the content,  until we reach the point of "hearing"....and that was the context of Scripture.  It was read in community.  In some Jewish traditions,  dialogue was encouraged,  almost exclusively in the context of educational , theological settings.  But dialogue was , early on,  seen as a key element in the theological process.  Even then,  the parameters of the dialogue were often strictly observed,  limiting the dialogue to discussion over approved rabbinical and clerical writings and teachings.   Even then,  the body of literature was "cast in stone" and recorded on expensive tablets or expensively bound books and paper, so that the availability of such made it a privilege of a select few.

So,  in such a historical context,  and seeking to understand how God would have us communicate,  in light of how the people of God HAVE sought to communicate,  what is the theological siginificance of "dialogue" in a theological community whose history has often been dominated by the handing down of a set of documents frm generation to generation?  A teacher I had who has now passed on,  David Lochhead,  said that "the Bible is a book which tries to be hypertext" (or "WANTS" to be hypertext.  Indeed,  there have been numerous attempts to "cross reference" and "connect" Biblical stories (one which comes to mind that was done from a fundamentalist perspective was the "Thompson Chain Reference Bible")

I mention this as a prelude to suggesting that God may have preferred a system of communication like the World Wide Web for the "transmission" of the story.   The nature of the Web encourages linkage-  to "illustrate" or "point to" the documents themselves from which texts have been drawn for quotation or summary.   The continuing "extensions" to HTML and Web applications have enabled many features to be added to websites to enable them to be increasingly "interactive",  and to encourage readers to "engage" in conversation around this topic to which they have been drawn by a search for something specific or by following links across related topics which ,  often serendipitiously,  lands them in an unexpected but engaging place.   (Continued in The Bible Wants to be Hypertext)

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:38:34 PM.