The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (497 page)

, was that the M
dhyamaka should seek to establish a positive thesis of its own, and that a purely negative dialectic was inadequate.
The contribution of Candrak
rti to an understanding of the terse aphorisms of N
g
rjuna, most notably through his ‘Clear Words’ (
Prasannapad
) commentary cannot be overestimated. Also of great importance is his own composition,
An Introduction to the M
dhyamaka System
(
M
dhyamaka-
vat
ra
).

 
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(1521–97).
Jesuit
theologian and controversialist. His interest in education led him to publish, in 1555, the first of three
catechisms
, the second (and perhaps most influential) of which appeared in 1556. In 1925 he was both canonized and, on the strength of his catechetical writings, declared a
Doctor of the Church
. Feast day, 21 Dec.

 
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1
Title of a member of the
chapter
of a cathedral or
collegiate church
.
2
(Gk., Kanon, ‘rule’). The determination of books which have authority in a religion, either because they are believed to be inspired or revealed, or because they have been so designated. In both Judaism (see
BIBLE
) and Christianity, the decision about which books were to be included or excluded was a long process—not leading to unanimity in Christianity, where Roman Catholics, relying on the Latin translation of the Greek translation of the Hebrew, included additional books not recognized by Jews or other Christians (
Apocrypha
). The earliest witness to the present canon of the New Testament is the
Festal Letter
of
Athanasius
for 367 CE; and the canon of both Testaments was probably finally fixed in Rome in 382.
The term ‘canon’ is then frequently applied to collections of sacred or holy texts in other religions. For Hinduism, see
RUTI
;
SM
TI
;
VEDA
;
VED
NTA
; and further refs.
ad loc
. For Buddhism (P
li canon, etc.), see
BUDDHIST SCRIPTURES
;
TRIPI
AKA
. The term ‘canon’ has been applied to revered and authoritative Jain texts (e.g. ‘the 45 text canon’), but the term is particularly awkward in this case: see
DIGAMBARA
;
A
GA
. For Sikhs, see
DI GRANTH
. For the Taoist canon, see
TAO-TSANG
. In Japan, the
Nihongi
and
Kojiki
were given a status which made them effectively ‘canonical’.
3
The central prayer of consecration in the Roman
mass
, and in all
eucharistic
liturgies in different forms. It assumed its present form under
Gregory
the Great (590–604). Unlike the practice in Eastern churches (see
ANAPHORA
), the RC Church maintained a single invariable prayer until recent times. Applied to other liturgies, ‘canon’ is practically synonymous with the more usual term ‘eucharistic prayer’.
4
A type of hymn sung at the E. (Byzantine) Orthodox morning
office
.