ABSTRACT
Sacred texts encompass and preserve a wide range of cultural materials, such as divine revelations, the teachings of founders and prophets, and a community's sacred history, all of which provide people with highly valued information about the sacred— information that is evocative, as in myth and story, or legally and ritually binding, as in law codes and prescribed ceremonies. While the content and uses of sacred texts vary gready from tradition to tradition and even within a single tradition, they are always perceived as the divine word, a truthful and powerful opening into the realm of the sacred. Whether oral or written, sacred texts are the touch stones of a culture; they tell people who they are, presenting them with self-definition and shaping consciousness (Denny and Taylor, 1995; Levering, 1989).
