Fiachra Long - Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to Written Documents and Their Reception

Reading the Sacred Scriptures

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 the 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 Bahai.

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.

Fiachra Long is a philosopher and Senior Lecturer in Education at University College Cork where he is Head of School.

Siobhn Dowling Long is a Lecturer in Education at University College Cork.

Reading the Sacred Scriptures

From Oral Tradition to Written Documents and their Reception

Edited by Fiachra Long and Siobhn Dowling Long

Contents

Fiachra Long

P. Oktor Skjrv

Carmel McCarthy

Rabbi Stephen Wylen

Sen Freyne

Thomas OLoughlin

Margaret Daly-Denton

Jonathan Kearney

Oliver Scharbrodt

Moojan Momen

Roshen Dalal

John DArcy May

Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh

Lee Dian Rainey

Ronnie Littlejohn

Stuart D.B. Picken

John F.A. Sawyer

Siobhn Dowling Long

Jukka O. Miettinen

Roshen Dalal is a full-time writer, living in Dehradun, India. Her many books include The Puffin History of India, vol. 1, 3,000 BC 1947 (3rd edn, 2014), The Puffin History of India, vol. 2, 1947 to the present (new edn, 2014), Religions of India: A Concise Guide to Nine Major Faiths (2006, 2010, 2014), Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide (2010, 2014), The Compact Timeline History of the World (2010), The Puffin History of the World, vol. 1 (2014), The Vedas: An Introduction to Hinduisms Sacred Texts (2014) and The Puffin History of the World, vol. 2 (2014).

Margaret Daly-Dentons earlier career as a church musician, composer, liturgist and monastic has resourced her more recent work as a biblical scholar. She is the author of David in the Fourth Gospel: The Johannine Reception of the Psalms (Leiden: Brill, 2000), Psalm-Shaped Prayerfulness: A Guide to the Christian Reception of the Psalms (Dublin: Columba, 2010; Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2011) and Supposing Him to Be the Gardener: An Earth-Conscious Reading of the Fourth Gospel (London: Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2017).

John DArcy May is Emeritus Professor of Ecumenics at Trinity College Dublin, a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin, and former head of the Irish School of Ecumenics. Author of several books in German and English, including numerous journal articles and book chapters, he has tirelessly promoted interfaith dialogue through conferences and presentations. Notable books include After Pluralism: Towards an Interreligious Ethic (2000), Transcendence And Violence: The Encounter of Buddhist, Christian and Primal Traditions (2003) and [ed.] Converging Ways? Conversion and Belonging in Buddhism and Christianity (2006).

Siobhn Dowling Long is a lecturer in Education at University College Cork. A specialist of the reception of the Bible in music, she is a contributor to scholarly journals, edited collections, and to the thirty-volume Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception (De Gruyter). She is author of The Sacrifice of Isaac: The Reception of a Biblical Story in Music (2013), and with John F.A. Sawyer, The Bible in Music. A Dictionary of Songs, Works and More (2015).

Sen Freyne was Emeritus Professor of Theology at Trinity College Dublin until his death in August 2013. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, President of the International Society for the Study of the New Testament, a fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a trustee of the Chester Beatty Library (Dublin). His books include Galilee and Gospel. Selected Essays (2000), Texts, Contexts and Cultures. Essays on Biblical Topics (2002), Jesus, a Jewish Galilean. A New Reading of the Jesus Story (2004) and The Jesus Movement and its Expansion: Meaning and Mission (2014).

Jonathan Kearney has lectured in Islamic Studies and Jewish Studies in Dublin City University since 2015. Prior to that he lectured in Religious Studies in St Patricks College, Drumcondra (20122015). He also lectures in Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, Biblical Hebrew and Classical Arabic in University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, and St Patricks College, Maynooth. His main scholarly interests are the textual bases of Judaism and Islam; mediaeval Jewish biblical interpretation; religions and language; religious minorities in Muslim-majority countries; authority and liminality in religions.

Ronnie Littlejohn is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Asian Studies at Belmont University. He is author of eight books, co-editor of two others, and has published over forty scholarly articles and book chapters. He was image editor for Chinas Sacred Sites in the special edition of