Working definition
A canon is a community-recognized collection or hierarchy of texts, teachings, persons, or practices. Boundaries may differ by lineage, language, region, institution, and period; therefore the system versions membership claims and records inclusion, exclusion, ordering, and degree of closure.
Questions this method asks
- Which community and date define this canon?
- Are boundaries closed, layered, or contested?
- Which materials remain para-canonical?
Evidence inputs
- Canonical lists and catalogues
- Manuscript collections and citations
- Institutional or lineage declarations
Method
- Version the claimed membership.
- Attach authority and provenance to each boundary.
- Preserve rival and overlapping canons.
What it can establish
- A supported historical or contemporary boundary claim
- Differences among named collections
What it cannot establish
- That excluded texts are inauthentic
- That one canon has superior sacred status
Interpretive risks
- Back-projecting modern lists
- Confusing availability with authority
Mathematical connection
Formal structure without validity transfer
Versioned canon membership
Represent overlapping and contested collections under named temporal and institutional constraints.
Inputs
- Item identities
- Community rules
- Version date
Outputs
- Membership state
- Conflict record
- Boundary provenance
Limit: A satisfiable membership model documents a canon claim; it does not determine which canon is spiritually correct.
Methodology sources
- [1]TEI P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange · Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
Establishes: A maintained scholarly standard for representing texts, manuscripts, witnesses, metadata, variants, editorial interventions, names, dates, and other features needed for inspectable digital editions.
Boundary: Encoding makes documentary structure and editorial decisions explicit; it does not decide which witness is original, which interpretation is correct, or whether the text’s theological claims are true.
- [2]TEI P5 Chapter 13: Critical Apparatus · Text Encoding Initiative Consortium
Establishes: A formal vocabulary for recording textual witnesses, variant readings, apparatus entries, and the relationship between an edited text and its manuscript, print, translation, or quotation evidence.
Boundary: A critical apparatus documents variation and editorial judgment. It cannot recover unattested wording with certainty or convert a reconstructed reading into a theological or historical fact.