The Address of Canon in the Light of the Different Shapes of Canon (EABS)

Call For Papers: Speaking of Canon we have to be aware, that “canon” is an abstract formula synthesizing different canons of diverse interpretation groups throughout history. When using the word »canon«, it is necessary to clarify which canon exactly is the subject of discourse or research. The harmonizing address of canon thus has to be open out to the different shapes of canon. These different shapes are well known for Hebrew Bible and the (Greek and) Latin Bible. Looking further one can concern more and more types of the order of the biblical books (see e.g. Brandt, Peter, Endgestalten des Kanons. Das Arrangement der Schriften Israels in der jüdischen und christlichen Bibel, BBB 131, Berlin/Wien 2001), which have not yet caught the full attention of biblical scholarship. The session will explore not only different shapes of biblical canons throughout history from pre-biblical law texts over the BHS and LXX canons up to Concile of Trient, but also the influences that lie behind canon formation processes and the usages of »final forms«. Is it further possible to trace back tendencies to shape a canon in the text itself and describe them in more than general terms such as »deuteronomistic«, »sapiential« or »apocalyptic«? Finally there is also the hermeneutical dimension to be investigated what having a canon means to a group and when it seems to become necessary to canonise a fixed set of texts the group relates to. Papers are welcome concerning all topics of the above mentioned items, beginning with the inner biblical process of canonisation, but also the post biblical process of rearranging the biblical scriptures. They may also deal with a certain canon and its organization.

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