List of religious texts with great literary significance?

[Quasy]

Besides the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer, what are the religious texts a person should read to understand literary references and allusions? Also, can I have examples to go with the religious work in question? For example,Book of common prayer-Ashes to ashes...etc What are some examples of quotes from religious texts that have been ingrained in contemporary culture?

As a side note, I was just going to buy a Book of Common Prayer. Which version should I get?

[Whifflingpin]

"The Book of Common Prayer" 1660 version, as used in the Church of England, is the one to use if you want literary references. If you live in England, then second-hand book shops are the best places to get one. Victorian copies are usually pretty cheap, as well as often enough being pretty.

The Greek myths & legends are the other component of the bedrock of western literature prior to 1914. All you need to know is included in the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid.

A handful of other works/traditions recur again and again - the Arthurian legend (start with an abridged version of Morte d'Arthur,) Chaucer & Shakespeare. More fashionable now seems to be the Celtic stuff, the Mabinogion, Irish myth & legend etc.

[kev67]

If we are just talking Christianity then maybe some of St Augustine of Hippo's writings have some literary significance.

[mona amon]

The Pilgrim's Progress is often alluded to by Victorian authors.

[Jackson Richardson]

The easiest route is to get hold of a comprehensive dictionary of quotes and browze through it. That's for quotes. To understand religious references, you need to know the context, so for Scott's Old Mortality you need to know a bit about Calvinist theology and ecclesiology (ie how the church should be organized.) Reading the significant bits of the Bible (ie not Leviticus or the minor prophets) will give you the background to a lot.

A text is only the tip of the iceberg for a way of life.