Sacred Text
By definition, Sacred Text is writing that "is venerated for the worship of a deity." For some, Sacred Text is writing that has been "Divinely inspired." However, in the Harvard Divinity course I took on World Religions, we looked at sacred text as writing that inspires, enlightens and/or encourages the reader. Therefore, poetry, prose and even graffiti can be sacred text. (Remember, the word sacred means "to hold as precious.") I have come to see there are religious Sacred (with a captial "s") texts: Torah, Bible, Qur'an, Bhagadava Gita, etc. But, I have also come to see other writing, such as poetry, as sacred (with a lower-case "s") texts. Let me give you an example: Basho, a Japanese poet, who traveled around Japan practicing Zen, writing beautiful haiku. His poems are, when taken at face value, little snapshots of his day and observations, BUT, when read critically from a spiritual viewpoint, hold lovely insights in...