Religion’s Future in View of Its Past

Part 6​—1513 B.C.E. Onward​—Religious Best-Sellers

“Our religion is in a book.”​—Samuel Johnson, 18th-century English essayist and poet

EVERY major religion has its book or books. Whereas they may “vary greatly in form, volume, age, and degree of sacredness,” says The New Encyclopædia Britannica, “their common attribute is that their words are regarded by the devout as sacred.” The very existence of so many sacred books proves in itself that mankind is basically religious in makeup.

The Bible (of Christianity), the Koran (of Islam), the Talmud (of Judaism), the Vedas (of Hinduism), and the Tripitaka (of Buddhism) are official sacred writings of major religions.a

Other books, while not recognized by any organized religions as their official holy books, are nonetheless religious in nature. This is true of the Kojiki and the Nihongi, books that for centuries have had a tremendous impact on Japanese life and on Shinto. Chinese life has been similarly influenced by the 13 Confucian Classics. The latter are based on the teachings of Confucius, a Chinese sage who was scarcely a teenager when Babylon fell to Medo-Persia in 539 B.C.E. The basic textbook of Confucianism, the Analects (Lun yü), is said to contain in its 496 chapters the words of Confucius himself.

More recent religious writings have also attained sacred status. Some are considered necessary additions to accepted scripture. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for example, believe that the Book of Mormon was written on gold plates by a prophet named Mormon; that it was later buried by his son Moroni; and that some 1,400 years later, during the first half of the 19th century, it was found by an angel and given to Joseph Smith, who translated it.

The book Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, first published in 1875 as Science and Health, is viewed similarly. For years she opposed having her book translated into other languages but finally relented, stipulating: “This new edition shall be printed with alternate pages of English and German, one side to contain the divinely inspired English version which shall be the standard, the other to contain the German text which shall be a translation.”​—Italics ours.

Even nonreligious books have been elevated to the status of sacred scripture. In this category are the 19th- and 20th-century writings of men like Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Mao Tse-tung, whose ideas on evolution and communism are religiously championed by millions of people.

Establishing a Canon

Most sacred writings were originally handed down by word of mouth, sometimes for centuries. But generally, at some point, it was considered necessary to determine what parts of the accumulated material​—either oral or written—​were to serve as the official canon of a particular religion. The word “canon” is defined as “a collection or authoritative list of books accepted as holy scripture.”

Establishing a uniform canon was not easy, at times not even possible. For example, The Encyclopedia of Religion calls Buddhist literature unique among the religious scriptures of the world because there are a number of canons. It says: “The scriptural collections vary from one another in significant ways, and there are few texts that can be found in every tradition.” This confusion resulted in the formation of sectarian groups and in what history calls the “Eighteen Schools” of Buddhist thought.

Hinduism, on the other hand, makes a distinction between an accepted canon and other material granted semisacred status. That class of Hindu sacred writings called the Sruti, meaning “learning by hearing,” refers to the primary revelation and includes the Vedas and the Upanishads. The Smrti, meaning “recollection,” complements the Sruti, explaining it and enlarging upon it. So the Smrti is considered secondary, semicanonical, although in actuality Hindus derive most of what they know about their religion from it.

Professed Christians have also had difficulties in establishing a canon for the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church and most Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches view some or all of 13 additional writings as deuterocanonical, meaning “of the second (or later) canon.” Protestants call them apocryphal, which originally meant “carefully concealed” because they were not read publicly but today implies that their authenticity is doubtful. James H. Charlesworth of Princeton Theological Seminary says: “When the canons of scripture were closed, first by Jewish and then by Christian authorities, these writings were not included, and they quickly began to lose their influence and importance.” It was not until 1546 that the Council of Trent declared them part of the Bible canon.

“Wat schrifft, blifft”

This rhyming Low German proverb, meaning “what is written will endure,” points up the pitfalls of transmitting information orally. Important details may be forgotten; slight changes may add nuances not originally intended. Thus, it is significant that of sacred books, the Bible was one of the first to be put into writing. In fact, Moses completed its first section in 1513 B.C.E.

By contrast, according to The Encyclopedia of Religion, the Upanishads, an extension of the Vedas dating from the eighth to the fourth century B.C.E. and compiled in Sanskrit, were “first put into written form in 1656 CE.” But this was not a case of negligence. It was intentional. Historian Will Durant explains: “The Vedas and the epics were songs that grew with the generations of those that recited them; they were intended not for sight but for sound.”

Some Hindus and Buddhists still claim that only oral recitation of scripture gives it maximum meaning and significance. They place great emphasis on mantras, words or formulas with supposedly inherent powers of salvation. The New Encyclopædia Britannica says that “by pronouncing a mantra in the correct manner it is believed that one may induce or even coerce the gods to bestow upon the devotee magical and spiritual powers not available to him otherwise.”

Whose Word, and for How Many?

Not all sacred scriptures lay claim to divine authorship or ask to be widely distributed and made available to all peoples. For example, the Hindu Upanishads (meaning “sitting near”) came to be called such because religious teachers were accustomed to confiding secret doctrines to their best and favorite pupils, to those “sitting near.” “The term upaniṣad thus connotes an element of esotericism,” explains The Encyclopedia of Religion, adding: “In fact, the Upaniṣads state explicitly that such lessons are not intended for the general population . . . [but] were to be heard by only select ears.”

Likewise, the Arabic Koran was considered by Muhammad to be a book intended solely for the Arabs. This was despite the fact that the one represented as speaking is almost exclusively God himself, the Creator of all peoples. Translating the Koran into other languages is considered unfitting; therefore, only the Arabic text can be recited and used for ritual purposes. This may remind some Catholics that prior to the Second Vatican Council, held in the 1960’s, only Latin could be used in Roman Catholic liturgy.

The Bible, on the other hand, makes clear that its message is not to be restricted to any one group. This is in keeping with its claim that it is not “the word of men, but . . . the word of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13) Its proponents strive to distribute it widely, reasoning that every individual has equal right to benefit from his Creator’s words of wisdom. So by the end of 1987, it had been translated, at least in part, into 1,884 languages or dialects. In 1977 The Book of Lists estimated the Bible’s circulation to be 2,458 million copies, saying, however, that 3,000 million would probably be more correct.

Religions​—Judged by Their Books

In 1933 English philosopher Alfred Whitehead wrote: “No religion can be considered in abstraction from its followers.” Accordingly, on the basis of the kind of people it produces, a religion can be judged as true or false, good or bad. And, of course, the sacred scriptures it professes to follow​—to the extent that their teachings are applied—​has much to do with molding its believers into what they are.

Sacred scriptures should offer proper guidance. They should​—as the Bible expresses it—​be “beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness,” assisting people to become “fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.”​—2 Timothy 3:16, 17.

How do religious best-sellers measure up? To what extent, for example, have Hindu and Buddhist sacred writings equipped their readers to cope with life’s problems? To find out, we must turn to India, of which historian Durant says: “In no other country is religion so powerful, or so important.” In our April issues, two articles dealing with this fascinating subject will appear, the first entitled “Hinduism​—Your Name Is Tolerance.”

[Footnotes]

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What Their Names Mean

BUDDHISM: Tripitaka, from Sanskrit for “three baskets [collections]”

CHRISTIANITY: Bible, from Greek for “little books”

CONFUCIANISM: Lun yü, Chinese for “conversations”

HINDUISM: Veda, from Sanskrit for “knowledge”

ISLAM: Koran, from Arabic for “reading, recitation”

JUDAISM: Talmud, from Hebrew for “study, learning”

SHINTŌ: Kojiki and Nihongi, Japanese for “records of ancient matters” and “chronicles of Japan”

TAOISM: Tao-te Ching, Chinese for “classic of the way of power”

ZOROASTRIANISM: Avesta, named after Avestan, dead Iranian language in which it was written

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How They Compare in Size

Some religious best-sellers are extremely lengthy. A major exception is the Koran, which is about one fourth the size of the Bible. Just one collection of Hindu sacred works, called the Samhitas, is estimated to contain upwards of a million stanzas. In comparison, the King James Version contains only 31,102 verses. And whereas the King James has 773,746 words, the Babylonian Talmud has some 2.5 million. Even more voluminous, the Chinese Buddhist canon is said to cover nearly a hundred thousand printed pages.

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The Bible and the Koran are among the religious best-sellers