Canons on the Right and Canons on the Left

Abstract

"About a decade ago Ian Provan wrote an insightful essay evaluating Brevard Childs’s influence on biblical studies and OT theology.2 The title of the essay—“Canons to the left of him”—alluded to Tennyson’s “Charge of the Light Brigade,” and suggested that the OT scholar had been involved in a battle for his views, particularly from the theological left. This metaphor of war is an apt description for describing the current controversy regarding the OT canon, and Tennyson’s poem is particularly fitting to describe the difficulty ahead for anyone venturing into the area of determining the shape and content of the OT. There are canons both blazing on the right and left and a veritable minefield of difficulties in front and behind including those of terminology, theology, history, and text. Nevertheless, let us begin our charge"