Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to Written Documents and their Reception examines how the scriptures came to be written and how their authority has been constructed and reinforced over time. Highlighting the measures taken to safeguard the stability of oral accounts, this book demonstrates the care of religious communities to maintain with reverence their assembled parchments and scrolls. Written by leading experts in their fields, this collection chronicles the development of the scriptures from oral tradition to written documents and their reception. It features notable essays on the scriptures of Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Daoism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Shinto, and Baha'i.
This book will fascinate anyone interested in the belief systems of the featured religions. It offers an ideal starting point from which undergraduate and postgraduate religious studies students, teachers and lecturers can explore religious traditions from their historical beginnings.
Edited by:
Fiachra Long,
Siobhán Dowling Long
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 234mm,
Width: 156mm,
Weight: 500g
ISBN: 9781138681309
ISBN 10: 113868130X
Pages: 324
Publication Date: 22 June 2017
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of Figures List of Contributors Preface Fiachra Long and Siobhán Dowling Long Acknowledgments The hermeneutic task Fiachra Long Part 1 Zoroastrian narrative: from Avesta to the Book of Kings P. Oktor Skjaervø How the Hebrew Bible came to be Carmel McCarthy Mishnah and midrash as process: the evolution of post-biblical Jewish Scriptures Rabbi Stephen Wylen How the early Christians read the Hebrew Scriptures Seán Freyne Reading the Sacred Scriptures: some evidence from early Christian Ireland Thomas O’Loughlin Reading the Song of Songs: a Jewish and Christian love affair Margaret Daly-Denton Mis-reading the Qur’ān: a non-Muslim pitfall? Jonathan Kearney Modern approaches to the Qur’ān Oliver Scharbrodt The reading of Scripture: A Bahá’i approach Moojan Momen Part 2 Hinduism and its basic texts: the Vedas, Upanishads, Epics and Puranas Roshen Dalal The Buddhist Reading of Scripture John D’Arcy May Reading the Scripture from the Sikh tradition: The Guru Granth Sahib Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh Confucianism and its texts Lee Rainey The Daodejing as a sacred text Ronnie Littlejohn Sacred Texts of the Shinto tradition: historical sources of myth and ritual Stuart D. B. Picken Part 3 The Book of Isaiah and its readers: the exegetical value of reception history John F. A. Sawyer The madness of King Saul: an interpretation of I Samuel 9–31 in music Siobhán Dowling Long Parallel narrative methods: Ramayana in the arts of Southeast Asia Jukka O. Miettinen
Fiachra Long is a philosopher and Senior Lecturer in Education at University College Cork where he is Head of School. Siobhan Dowling Long is a Lecturer in Education at University College Cork.
Reviews for Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to Written Documents and their Reception
"""The accessible and erudite, thought-through chapters of this book open up the foundational scriptures of the world religions and illumine their history of effects in the practices and self-understandings of their own traditions, and in their encounter with other religions and cultures. A first-class, thorough and original book for teaching and learning about the varied ways in which religions relate to their foundational scriptures, bringing together experts on these texts and their hermeneutics in different eras."" - Maureen Junker-Kenny, Trinity College, Ireland ""A nice collection of essays bound together by the common interest in hermeneutics as well as by the variety of topics and traditions presented that leads one to ponder on diversity and unity in reading sacred literature."" - J. Verheyden, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses"
