ABSTRACT
Frequently we hear that a religious text is “canonical” or forms part of a particular religion’s “canon.” This term, like so many in the field, is a term of relevance to the members of the groups we study that has been simply reinscribed in the academic study of religion, where it is now used generically and often interchangeably with cognate terms like “scripture” or “holy books.” A person designated as “a canon” was expected to conduct their life according to the customary discipline or rules of the church. Despite its origins in ancient Greek, the term canon is intimately connected to the history of Christianity where it refers primarily to the collection of what are believed to be authentic biblical books—a collection characterized as closed, as in excluding further additions or revisions.
