![]() In some places, oral tradition has never been and possibly never will be written down in any formal way. It is also important to understand that a number of religious expressions have used and continue to use oral tradition in passing on teachings, rituals, stories and rules. Looking at the history and context of these writings is useful as one explores the origins and developments of the world’s major faiths. Many faiths have a rich history of revered and honored texts, be they the word of God as revealed to prophets, oral stories retold by one generation to another over centuries, or the sayings of a Teacher written down (eventually) into books. “ A work of art, be it a novel, a poem, or a Scripture, must be read according to the laws of its genre.” “Because it does not conform to modern scientific and historical norms, many people dismiss Scripture as incredible and patently ‘untrue,’ but they do not apply the same criteria to a novel, which yields profound and valuable insights by means of fiction,” “Īrmstrong states, in a way that helps the reader understand the difference between something being insightful and something being factual, ![]() ![]() Anyone who has been to a Catholic Mass or a Pentecostal service, or experienced the recitation of the Quran or a Tibetan Buddhist chant, knows that they couldn’t fully be captured by a transcript any more than a song can be by its lyrics. It’s like complaining about Shakespeare bending history, or protesting that a great song isn’t factual. “Armstrong argues that this approach misunderstands how Scripture works. The author of the article regarding Armstrong’s book about scriptures, Nicholas Kristoff, says, Scripture was usually sung, chanted or declaimed in a way that separated it from mundane speech, so that words - a product of the brain’s left hemisphere - were fused with the more indefinable emotions of the right.” “Indeed, in some traditions, the sound of the inspired words would always be more important than their semantic meaning. Karen Armstrong, author and former nun, writes, “Our English word ‘Scripture’ implies a written text, but most Scriptures began as texts that were composed and transmitted orally,” she writes. Start by reading this article from the New York Times: What is the Meaning of Sacred Texts?
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