Three possible responses:
1) Because its teaching is consonant with X where X might be Jesus' teaching, or the Church's teaching.
2) An historical answer: this is the Canon because of these historical events.
3) Because it is that by which we measure our proclamation.
The first rather undermines our idea of a canon in that it measures the Canon by something else, thereby revealing that the Canon is not the Canon.
The second, historical, approach offers insight into how the Canon operates as canon within the Church.
The third approach is not really an answer, but it does serve to focus us on the use of Canon in authorizing and controlling the Church's belief and witness. It helps preserve us from the first approach, which may ultimately drive us to seeking foundations for the Canon in more general methods of inquiry which have nothing to do with the Canon and the use of which may result in a controlling of the content of the Canon.
And yet, the first approach does remind us that the Word is the Word in a derivative sense. It is the Word of God as Witness to God's self-revelation in Christ. Such a recognition reminds us that the Canon's function is to be used in that self-revelation. Attempts to use the Canon for some other use, for instance as historical source, are different tasks and not to be confused with the self-revelation of God.
... "This overall narrative character of the canon, together with its designation as Word of God suggests that the canon might plausibly be construed as a story which has God as its "author". It is a story in which real events and persons are depicted in a way that discloses their relationship to God and to God's purposes; a story that finally involves and relates all persons and events, and which, as it is told and heard in the power of God's Spirit, becomes the vehicle of God's own definite self-disclosure. God is not only the author of this story but its chief character as well; so that as the story unfolds we come to understand who God is. And because God is not only the character but also the author, the story's disclosure is God's self-disclosure. We become aquainted with God as the one who is behind the story and within it."
1) Because its teaching is consonant with X where X might be Jesus' teaching, or the Church's teaching.
2) An historical answer: this is the Canon because of these historical events.
3) Because it is that by which we measure our proclamation.
The first rather undermines our idea of a canon in that it measures the Canon by something else, thereby revealing that the Canon is not the Canon.
The second, historical, approach offers insight into how the Canon operates as canon within the Church.
The third approach is not really an answer, but it does serve to focus us on the use of Canon in authorizing and controlling the Church's belief and witness. It helps preserve us from the first approach, which may ultimately drive us to seeking foundations for the Canon in more general methods of inquiry which have nothing to do with the Canon and the use of which may result in a controlling of the content of the Canon.
And yet, the first approach does remind us that the Word is the Word in a derivative sense. It is the Word of God as Witness to God's self-revelation in Christ. Such a recognition reminds us that the Canon's function is to be used in that self-revelation. Attempts to use the Canon for some other use, for instance as historical source, are different tasks and not to be confused with the self-revelation of God.
... "This overall narrative character of the canon, together with its designation as Word of God suggests that the canon might plausibly be construed as a story which has God as its "author". It is a story in which real events and persons are depicted in a way that discloses their relationship to God and to God's purposes; a story that finally involves and relates all persons and events, and which, as it is told and heard in the power of God's Spirit, becomes the vehicle of God's own definite self-disclosure. God is not only the author of this story but its chief character as well; so that as the story unfolds we come to understand who God is. And because God is not only the character but also the author, the story's disclosure is God's self-disclosure. We become aquainted with God as the one who is behind the story and within it."
- Charles M. Wood, The Formation of Christian Understanding, 2nd edn
(Trinity Intl. Press: 1993; repr. Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2000)
(Trinity Intl. Press: 1993; repr. Eugene, Wipf and Stock, 2000)
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