Epistles to Apostles

Abstract

Northrop Frye was famously known for his claim, in The Great Code, that the Christian Bible is the key point of reference for the Western European literary canon. He did not, of course, intend the idea of this literary canon to be understood narrowly. All manner of writing, with the possible exception of recipe books and instructions for assembling bicycles, is, in some measure, to be comprised. More than this, all manner of communication through and by language, be it written or oral, be it read, said, sung or chanted, forms part of this canon. Indeed, all manner of human symbolic expression, whether adjunct to language as in the case of opera, musicals, songs, chants, and circuses or standing apart from language as in the case of painting, sculpture, ballet, dance, and symphonies, is meant to find its intellectual and spiritual roots in biblical myth and allegory. On this analysis of Frye's claim, legal artifacts are also canonical literary forms. International treaties, constitutions, codes, statutes, regulations, judicial decisions, and administrative determinations are all tributary to the 'Great Code.' So too are law review articles and law reform commission reports. My aim in this short paper is to appropriate Frye's insight in order to explore what, in the words of the organizers of this session, 'the interface of the law review and law reform' might conceivably be. I do so by organizing my comments around one of the most successful propaganda exercises found in Western literature; namely, the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I intend nothing special by my choice of these Gospels as a literary figure from the Christian Bible. I could equally have selected the Revelations of St. John or the various epistles of Paul to the Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. Or I could have used the books of the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Proverbs or even the Song of Solomon. In other words, for present purposes, the specific textual references are less important than the acknowledgment that biblical allegories can be read as grounding Western thought and action. Let me be clear that my point is not to proselytize for any particular religious tradition or any particular theological interpretation of the Bible. More generally, my aim is not to make any claims about a religious belief system at all. Rather it is to show that the themes now open for discussion resonate with the deepest concerns of a socio-cultural tradition. So that I may speak authentically, I have chosen my own. This choice is not meant to pre-empt other choices. I leave it to the reader to find the appropriate analogues in his or her own socio-cultural tradition, a task that it is, obviously, not necessary for me to perform. There is a further point that should be made by way of introduction. Implicit in this paper is a belief that allegory is a foundational feature of intersubjective communication. Allegory need not always be religious; nor need its cultural referents even be spiritual. In selecting the four Gospels I am, admittedly, committing myself to a structural organization that draws out four themes. But having accepted the number four as a basis of allegory, I might equally have spoken of other quartets: the four seasons of the year; or the four horsemen of the apocalypse; or the four essences in pre-Socratic philosophy - wet, dry, cold, hot; or the four movements in the classical symphony; or the four temptations of Christ; or the 'Fab Four' John, Paul, George, Ringo; or the four suits in a deck of playing cards; or the four states of Buddhism - interest, desire, duty, liberation; or even the four points of the compass or the four winds. While all of these figurative referents could be made to serve my purposes, they would do so in slightly different ways. Like the four Gospels, some obviously have theological overtones. Others, at first blush, do not - although it takes very little reflection on the allegorical possibilities of the four seasons, the four movements of a symphony, and the four points of the compasses or the four winds to see their invitation to transcendence. Still others appear as purely conjectural. Yet again, in the representation of spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs and the pop-cultural modeling of the roles played by each of the four Beatles, similar themes are evident. So while I eschew sectarian ambitions, I do believe, with Frye, that there is much value in interrogating both law reviews and law reform commissions (seen in their guise of Western European cultural artifacts) with a biblical allegory. In this instance, I invoke the diverse perspectives adopted in the four accounts of Jesus presented in the four Gospels. But I do so in the patterns and forms of literary incantation. In the repetition of structure - of gospel, commentary and revelation - and the fourfold calling up of question and response, my aim is to invite reflection upon the forms, the content, and the purposes of legal scholarship as these are manifest in law reviews and law reform commission documents.