ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the third part of this book. The third part of the book presents the scripture as a genre of religious text that is identifiable not by its form or content, but only by its relationship to a particular religious community and tradition. It identifies the characteristic attributes of scriptures: power, authority and sacrality, unicity, inspiration and eternality or great antiquity. It also considers especially evidence from the Indian and Christian traditions, which at first blush seem very far apart in terms of their focus on oral or written textuality in their interactions with their scriptural texts. It further shows that they have missed in both cases the primarily oral dimensions of scriptural piety—in the Christian "book" tradition no less than in the Hindu "recited scripture" tradition. Finally, it deals with the primary orality of the Vedas and even Puranic and later regional or sectarian sacred texts in Indian usage.
