Apocryphes et canon : leurs rapports et leur statut respectif - Un questionnement théologique,

Abstract

The differences between the biblical canon and the apocryphal writings need to be analysed. Otherwise we risk to reduce the biblical texts received by the church to a simple collection of historically developed texts - a collection to which the canonical and extra-canonical writings belong, if we take into consideration the same criteria. In this case, we will deprive ourselves of the possibility of understanding Christianity in its true nature, both from a theological perspective as well as from a point of view of the religious studies. In analysing the differences between the biblical canon and the apocryphal writings we are led on the one hand to reflecting on the institutional reality of Christianity, and on the other hand on the meaning of this institutional reality in history. For those reasons a series of arguments have been proposed, seeking to lay down a platform for a debate.