If we were creating the Bible today????

When I was in seminary we did a lot of work in both Church History and Systematic Theology exploring the ideas behind the Bible as an expression of God's revelation. All this is good, but it tends to leave one with the idea that God's Inspirational and Revelatory work ceased when the Canon of Biblical Books was decided and closed in various Councils of the Church in and around the 4th Century. In other words, we get the impression that God no longer inspires men and women in the way that they were inspired back then, and that nothing has or can change in our understanding of God.

A few years ago, John Spong offered a challenge - he probably wasn't the first to do so - by asking people to consider what writings they would want to include as equally inspirational in their spiritual lives with a view to creating a contemporary Canon of Scripture.

I would like to take up the challenge but am inviting your input about what examples of literature and art you might include if we were a Virtual Council of the Church. Given our capacity to store written material digitally, the Canon of the 21st Century could be published on a Kindle or iPad and contain a much more comprehensive selection of materials than ancient manuscripts were limited to.

You might want to include the prayers of Bonhoeffer and Henri Nouwen, the cartoons and poems of Michael Leunig, some of the great art works of the last millennium as well as sacred musical works and hymns - Mozart, Handel and Fanny Crosby for example.

What do you think? Please leave a comment.