Which Protestant denominations of Christianity give attention and respect

[Boojatta]

to gospels that are not included in the list of four (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John)?

[Az]

1. The only one I can think of is nominally Unitarian Universalism

UUs are technically offshoots of Christianity. They tend to be open to and respect any source of wisdom (if it can be shown to contain wisdom). They do not hold the bible as canon. They don't particularly site any other gospels but they certainly are often keen on what they have to say. Its tough to say.

[madrchsod]

2. maybe the coptic church

i`m not sure what their bible includes. not many people realize that the coptic church even exists.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copt

[knitter4democracy]

3. I don't think so. Their split was after the Bible was put together.

There's talk of the Coptic Orthodox joining back in with the Eastern Orthodox. After something like 1500 years, it turns out our theologies aren't the different anymore.

[TechBear_Seattle]

7. The canon of the Coptic Church is mostly the same as all other Christian Churches

They have the same Old and New Testament that is accepted throughout Christendom. Their Deuterocanon is very similar to the one used by the Orthodox Church (there are some differences, but I don't have a list detailing them); unlike the Orthodox, the Coptic church holds that the Deuterocanon is divinely inspired but not Scripture.

You might be thinking of Gnostic churches. They generally do recognize gospels that are not a part of the accepted New Testament, but their development and history is such that they cannot be considered to be Protestant.

[TechBear_Seattle]

4. I don't think there are any

By definition, Protestantism is an European off-shoot of Roman Catholicism. As such, Protestants accept the Old and New Testaments as historically received by the Church. Any group that accepted extra-Scriptural gospels as Holy Writ is, by definition, not Protestant.

I would assert that any such groups do not meet the doctrinal definition of Christian, either, but that is a different set of quibbles. :hi:

[Boojatta]

5. "Any group that accepted extra-Scriptural gospels as Holy Writ..."

The Original Post of this thread refers to attention and respect. Surely paying attention to E, F, and G and respecting E, F, and G do not themselves constitute acceptance of E, F, and G as Holy Writ.

On what basis could one allege that opposition to attention and/or respect for E, F, and G are required if one is to accept A, B, C, and D as Holy Writ? Surely one needs to pay enough attention and have enough respect that one has some chance of acquiring an understanding of E, F, and G given that we have access to whatever ideas are expressed in them via something like ink marks on paper or other similarly non-user-friendly artifacts.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Allow me to rephrase

There exists a canon of Christian scripture. This canon can be divided into three groups: The Hebrew Scriptures, commonly called the Old Testament; the Greek Scriptures, commonly called the New Testament; and the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deuterocanonical_books">Deuterocanon, scriptures which come from the Jewish religious tradition but which are not themselves part of the Jewish canon.

All Christian churches accept the same Old and New Testament canons. The historic churches, such as the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Syrian, have a body of Deuterocanonical works that is largely the same with some variation. The Protestant movement rejected the Deuterocanon to different degrees. Early groups such as the Church of England held that the Deuterocanon was worth reading but should not be used to establish doctrine; latter groups discarded the Deuterocanon entirely.

Your question was about Protestant denominations which "give attention and respect" to gospels which are outside of the accepted New Testament canon. I assert that the historic character of Protestant Christianity requires holding to the accepted Old and New Testament and rejecting canonical status to other works even if they are considered worthy of acknolwedgement. Because of this, I would assert that any group that did give canonical status to anything other than the accepted Old and New Testament could not be classed as Protestant.

There is also the issue that you specify Gospels. I assume by this you mean a work such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Infancy Gospel of James or the Gospel of Judas. Gospels are writings which relate directly to Jesus. Acknowledging such writings as worth reading, much less holding them as canon, would be anathema to the Protestant doctrine of the supremacy of Scripture. Again, I would assert that any group that did "give attention and respect" to a gospel outside of the accepted canon could not be called Protestant.

[Boojatta]

8. Thank you for that answer!

A brief comment...

the Deuterocanon, scriptures which come from the Jewish religious tradition but which are not themselves part of the Jewish canon.

One "book"/chapter that comes to mind is Ecclesiasticus (not to be confused with Ecclesiastes). Ecclesiasticus is in the Catholic Bible. It contains the following:

Do not waste many words on a stupid man,
do not go near a dolt.
Beware of him, or he will give you trouble,
and leave you soiled by contact with him.
Avoid him, and you will find rest
and not be exasperated by his folly.

Helpful advice for some message board participants? It explains the motivation for having an ignore list.