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- Sacred words differ from ordinary words in that they are believed either to possess and convey spiritual and magical powers or to be the means through which a divine being or other sacred reality is revealed in phrases and sentences full of power and truth.
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Sacred words differ from ordinary words in that they are believed either to possess and convey spiritual and magical powers or to be the means through which a divine being or other sacred reality is revealed in phrases and sentences full of power and truth.
A broad definition. Characteristics of sacred writings. How western or non-western writings differ. The use of sacred texts helps make tangible the beliefs and history of a faith tradition. This can be useful in approaching any particular faith. It can also, in some ways, freeze a faith tradition in time.
The biblical term qdš is traditionally taken to mean “sacred.” The King James Bible translates it this way 90 percent of the time, using the English words “holy,” “sanctified,” “consecrated,” “hallowed,” and “sanctuary.”
Aug 16, 2023 · The terms sacred and profane serve as pillars for understanding various religious phenomena. Originating from the Latin words 'sacer' (holy) and 'profanum' (outside the temple), these concepts have been central to anthropological, sociological, and religious studies.
- Overview
- Characteristics
- Scriptures in non-Western religions
scripture, the revered texts, or Holy Writ, of the world’s religions. Scriptures comprise a large part of the literature of the world. They vary greatly in form, volume, age, and degree of sacredness, but their common attribute is that their words are regarded by the devout as sacred. Sacred words differ from ordinary words in that they are believe...
Most sacred scriptures were originally oral and were passed down through memorization from generation to generation until they were finally committed to writing. A few are still preserved orally, such as the hymns of Native Americans. Many bear the unmistakable marks of their oral origin and can best be understood when recited aloud; in fact, it is still held by many Hindus and Buddhists that their scriptures lack, when read silently, the meaning and significance they have when recited aloud, for the human voice is believed to add to the recited texts dimensions of truth and power not readily grasped by the solitary reader.
Not all scriptures, however, were originally oral, nor were they in all parts directly effectual in rituals that sought the granting of magical and spiritual powers. The greater part of recorded scripture has either a narrative or an expository character. The types of sacred and semisacred texts are, in fact, many and varied. Besides magical runes (ancient Germanic alphabet characters) and spells from primitive and ancient sources, they include hymns, prayers, chants, myths, stories about gods and heroes, epics, fables, sacred laws, directions for the conduct of rituals, the original teachings of major religious figures, expositions of these teachings, moral anecdotes, dialogues of seers and sages, and philosophical discussions. In fact, scriptures include every form of literature capable of expressing religious feeling or conviction.
A striking instance of making a distinction between canonical and semicanonical scriptures occurs in Hinduism. The Hindu sacred literature is voluminous and varied; it contains ancient elements and every type of religious literature that has been listed, except historical details on the lives of the seers and sages who produced it. Its earliest portions, namely the four ancient Vedas (hymns), seem to have been provided by Indo-European families in northwestern India in the 2nd millennium bce. These and the supplements to them composed after 1000 bce—the Brahmanas (commentaries and instruction in ritual), the Aranyakas (forest books of ascetics), and the Upanishads (philosophical treatises)—are considered more sacred than any later writings. They are collectively referred to as Shruti (“Heard”; i.e., communicated by revelation), whereas the later writings are labeled Smriti (“Remembered”; i.e., recollected and reinterpreted at some distance in time from the original revelations). The former are canonical and completed, not to be added to nor altered, but the latter are semicanonical and semisacred.
Buddhist sacred literature recollects Gautama Buddha’s life and teaching in the 6th century bce and first appeared in the dialect called Pali, allied to the Magadhi that he spoke. As time passed and his movement spread beyond India, Buddhism adopted as its medium Sanskrit, the Indian classical language that was widely used in ancient Asia. A distinction arose between the Theravada (“Way of the Elders”), preserved in Pali and regarded as canonical, and the vast number of works written in Sanskrit within the more widely dispersed Buddhism called by its adherents Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”). The Mahayana works were later translated and further expanded in Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese.
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- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
How do we embrace the sacred in the ordinary and the ordinary in the sacred? Framed around one ordinary day, this book explores daily life through the lens of liturgy, small practices, and habits that form us.
Chapter 1: Sacredness and Everyday Life. How does our experience of the sacred differ from our experience of everyday life? How does the sacred penetrate this reality? What can we learn about the nature and functions of the sacred by considering the nature and functions of everyday life?
