In his book Biblical Canon: Its orgin, transmission and authority, Lee Martin McDonald says, "canonization was an unconscious process throughout most of its development.” (Page 18). What does this mean?
Christian, is this a request for a resource, or something about the app?
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You might find these helpful:
The Question of Canon: Challenging the Status Quo in the New Testament Debate | Logos Bible Software
Creating the Canon: Composition, Controversy, and the Authority of the New Testament | Logos Bible Software
Five Views on the New Testament Canon (Viewpoints) | Logos Bible Software
I like Lee McDonald and even have his 2 volume set "The Formation of the Biblical Canon." However, I often find myself rereading sections and opening my dictionary frequently. Along with reading his books, I would also recommend other less "academic" ones. This helped me gain a general understanding before delving deeper into McDonald.
He probably means to say throughout most of the history of canon development people didn't sit around in meetings and say "let's develop the canon of scripture" -- that would have been a "conscious" process. You'll have to read the entire book and some of the other books people recommend here to understand how the process unfolded.
