Definitive Religious Texts

[Joshua Thornton]

Hey all of you lit goons out there,

A question has plagued my mind for a while now. Religion is everywhere, obviously. It is so fluid, evolving, and diverse. Everything about religion is different and everything about religion is interesting. I would like to start a world religion survey in the near future, but I need to do my research first. So, my question is: What are the definitive texts for each individual religion?

I'll lay down some ground rules for clarification.

1) By "definitive," I mean at the root of said religion, it's basic source and inspiration. The religion's sole foundation. What text leads these groups of people? For example, The Qu'ran is designed for Islam and Muslims.
2) By "individual religion", I am referring to the core of said religion. For example, Christianity as a whole, not Catholicism.

For our purposes here, I realize that most religious text are designed for all people to follow and practice. Let's just ignore that for the time being.

Obviously, here are a few examples to get things started. I would be more than grateful for others to add to this list.

In no particular order*:

1) Judaism - The Torah
2) Christianity - The Bible
3) Islam - The Qu'ran

*I am only familiar with the Abrahamic religions.

[Jackson Richardson]

For this churchgoer, the Bible is not the root of Christianity. The root and origin is the person of Jesus Christ, to whom the scriptures bear authorative witness, but not only the scriptures.

I think you are working on a particular model which doesn't fit other religions, and IMHO, is misleading for Christianity. When you say "the core of said reigion.. not (just) Catholicism" you are making out protestant Christianity to be the core. I'd question that - by introducing the concept of "sola scriptura", Luther lead the way to fundamentalism and a deeply unimaginative approach to reading. (Evangelicals have also removed books from the Christian Bible.)

You have answered your question for the three principle religions to which it applies. Sikhism is also monotheistic and have the Guru Granth Sahib. But scriptures work differently in different religious traditions. Hinduism has the Vedas and Upanishads, but these have a very different place to the Christian or Jewish scriptures.

[108 fountains]

JonathanB. raises some good points. I would suggest you scout out some college textbooks on world religions as a start. I have one that I often go back to refer to. It gives a good survey of all the world's major religions and several of the more minor ones (in terms of numbers of followers). It is Many Peoples, Many Faiths by Robert S. Ellwoood, Jr.

For sacred texts, I agree with Jonathan that these texts do not always form the "core" of the religion, but they are important. You'll get different lists from different people. I'll list those I can think of for the "eastern" religions I'm familiar with, but I'm sure I'll be missing some, and of course within each religion listed are branches, sects and offshoots (often delineated by geographic location) that may put greater or lesser significance on the listed texts:

Hinduism: the Tantras (also important in Buddhism - some people refer to Hindu tantras vs. Buddhist tantras) the Puranas, the Laws of Manu, Yoga Sutra, Bhagavad-Gita, the Upanishads, the Rig Veda

Sikhism: the Holy Granth

Zoroastrianiam: the Zend of Avesta

Buddhism: (Buddhism also refers back to many of the same sacred texts as Hinduism since much of the philosophy of the two religions is "shared.") More strictly Buddhists texts are the Tantras, the Tripitaka (more important to Theravada Buddhism than Mahayana Buddhism as far as I know), the sutras, especially the Lotus Sutra (Mahayanna Buddhism), the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol)(Tibetan Buddhism), the Ramayana (some might not consider this to be as religious as it is cultural, but it is an important text in all the mainland countries of Southeast Asia; it's also as much part of the Hindu culture/religion as it is Buddhist and I could have just as easily listed it under Hinduism).

I'm leaving out Taoism and Shintoism and other religions of China and Japan as I am not really so familiar with them, so tis is only a partial listing, but it might be useful as you begin your study of world religions.

[Calidore]

The Sacred Texts Archive website is a good place to start:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/

[108 fountains]

The Sacred Texts Archive website is a good place to start:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/

Very nice site! Thanks for posting.

[Joshua Thornton]

Duly noted, thanks for the responses.

I agree that my model isn't sound - I constructed it in about fifteen minutes. But, it was meant to get an idea of what works, scriptures, or texts, can represent a certain religion as a whole. For example and in contrast, "The Origin of Species" is a good basis and representation in the foundation of evolutionary theory and natural selection. I'll look further into these resources.

[Calidore]

Very nice site! Thanks for posting.

Be careful, you can lose a LOT of time there.

[HCabret]

For this churchgoer, the Bible is not the root of Christianity. The root and origin is the person of Jesus Christ, to whom the scriptures bear authorative witness, but not only the scriptures.

I think you are working on a particular model which doesn't fit other religions, and IMHO, is misleading for Christianity. When you say "the core of said reigion.. not (just) Catholicism" you are making out protestant Christianity to be the core. I'd question that - by introducing the concept of "sola scriptura", Luther lead the way to fundamentalism and a deeply unimaginative approach to reading. (Evangelicals have also removed books from the Christian Bible.)

You have answered your question for the three principle religions to which it applies. Sikhism is also monotheistic and have the Guru Granth Sahib. But scriptures work differently in different religious traditions. Hinduism has the Vedas and Upanishads, but these have a very different place to the Christian or Jewish scriptures.
Which version of the Bible is authoritative?

[byquist]

Jesus: "If a man keep my sayings, he shall never see death." -- very deep, comprehensive and all-encompassing statement.

paraphrase, Jesus: "I am not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill." -- showing continuity of Old and New Testaments.