Sacred text
From Wikinfo
The scriptures (or sacred texts) of a religion refer to those written texts which authorities and adherents consider inspired, sacred, or fundamental to their faiths.
Different religions differ widely in the degree to which they revere various scriptures, from the Qur'an believed in Islam to have been actually dictated to Muhammad by Allah, to the hundreds of texts read by Buddhists, whose authenticity is not thought to be related as much to their usefulness.
Often believing that their sacred texts are wholly divine or partially inspired in origin, the faithful use titles like Word of God to denote the holy writings. Even non-believers often capitalise the names of sacred scriptures as a mark of respect or of tradition.
Many religions and spiritual movements hold a certain series of spoken legends not traditionally written down to be sacred as well as the written texts themselves.
Although ancient civilizations have produced handmade texts for many millennia, the first printed scripture for wide distribution for the masses was The Diamond Sutra, a Buddhist scripture, printed in the year 868.
Attitudes to sacred texts differ. Some religions make written texts widely freely available, while others hold that sacred secrets must remain hidden from all but the loyal and the initiate. Most religions promulgate policies defining the limits of the sacred texts and controlling or forbidding changes and additions. Translations of texts may receive official blessing, but an original sacred language often has de facto, absolute or exclusive paramouncy. Some religions make texts available gratis or in subsidised form; others require payment and the strict observance of copyright.
Arguments about the authenticity of various scriptures, about details of interpretation, or about which to include in a sacred canon of scriptures, are often a pretext for schism within religious traditions.
References to scriptures profit from standardisation: the Guru Granth Sahib always appears with standardised page numbering, the Abrahamic religions and their offshoots appear to favour chapter and verse pointers.
List of Sacred texts
- Baha'i: Kitab-i-Aqdas (The Most Holy Book), The Kitab-i-Iqan (The Book of Certitude), and Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah) and others
- Buddhism: The Tipitaka and sutras
- Christianity: The Christian Bible (Old Testament and New Testament
- Church of Christ, Scientist: The Christian Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
- Confucianism: The Analects of Confucius
- Finnish mythology: Kalevala
- Hawaiian mythology: Kumulipo
- Hinduism: Vedas, The Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita
- Islam: The Koran and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammed)
- Judaism: The Jewish Bible (Tanakh = Torah, Nevi'im, Ketuvim), the Talmud, the Mishnah (oral law)
- Mandaeanism: The Ginza Rba
- Mormonism: The Christian Bible, Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, Doctrine and Covenants
- Maori mythology: The Wharewananga
- Neopaganism and Wicca: The Charge of the Goddess, the Wiccan Rede and other writings, ancient and modern
- Norse mythology: The Poetic Eddas
- Old Slavic religion: possibly The Book of Veles
- Rastafarianism - Holy Piby translation of the Christian Bible, Kebra Negast
- Scientology - various writings of L. Ron Hubbard
- Sikhism: The Guru Granth Sahib
- Taoism: The Tao-te-ching
- Welsh mythology: The Mabinogion
- Yoruba mythology: The itan
- Zoroastrianism: The Avesta
- Various New Age religions may regard any of the several texts as sacred:
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Sacred_text" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_text, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
