Karate and Canonicity

This past weekend was a karate test; I was testing for my 4th Dan in Tang Soo Do, and one of my friends was attending. He went through the same rite a couple years ago, but had joined an association that doesn't like my school all that much for a variety of mostly political reasons.

There was a bit of discussion about rank, and his perception of what Master really meant. My friend's perspective is that promotion to any rank, master included, is a recognition of what is already evident—one is not given the rank by the instructor as much as the instructor is agreeing that all of the necessary requirements are fulfilled. We see this in any degree program, of course—my degree from school says basically exactly that, just in somewhat more flowery language.

Now his current instructor is of a different mind. I'm not really at liberty to talk about how the conflict came to pass, but he is adamant that he and only he should be allowed to confer the title of master.

Given some recent arguments about the canon of Scripture, it is interesting to me that this would come up, as this is somewhat analogous. Is the canon recognized or determined by the church?


Naturally there is a bit of tension in the way we think about this. Anyone can call himself a master of a martial art, but naturally there is a question about whether he can withstand the test to pass. There is another question: if he is not put to the test, is he still a master?

The ways in which we answer this question may help us articulate our perception of the canon. I don't have much in the way of time to answer well. It seems to me that there are both objective and subjective approaches to answering the question of canonicity, and that these are naturally going to provide different responses.

I will say as a final note that one of the things I appreciate about the martial arts is that they provide me an occasional metaphor for theological matters. That I am a kinaesthetic and visual learner is probably undeniable; it surprises me sometimes how these sort of manual endeavours prompt such mental ones.