Reading the Sacred Scriptures

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

• List of FiguresList of ContributorsPreface Fiachra Long and Siobhán Dowling LongAcknowledgments The hermeneutic task Fiachra LongPart 1 Zoroastrian narrative: from Avesta to the Book of Kings P. Oktor Skjaervø How the Hebrew Bible came to be Carmel McCarthy Mishnah and midrash as process: the evolution of post-biblical Jewish ScripturesRabbi Stephen Wylen How the early Christians read the Hebrew ScripturesSeán Freyne Reading the Sacred Scriptures: some evidence from early Christian IrelandThomas O’Loughlin Reading the Song of Songs: a Jewish and Christian love affairMargaret Daly-Denton Mis-reading the Qur’ān: a non-Muslim pitfall? Jonathan Kearney Modern approaches to the Qur’ān Oliver Scharbrodt The reading of Scripture: A Bahá’i approach Moojan MomenPart 2 Hinduism and its basic texts: the Vedas, Upanishads, Epics and PuranasRoshen Dalal The Buddhist Reading of ScriptureJohn D’Arcy May Reading the Scripture from the Sikh tradition: The Guru Granth SahibNikky-Guninder Kaur Singh Confucianism and its texts Lee Rainey The Daodejing as a sacred text Ronnie Littlejohn Sacred Texts of the Shinto tradition: historical sources of myth and ritualStuart D. B. PickenPart 3 The Book of Isaiah and its readers: the exegetical value of reception historyJohn F. A. Sawyer The madness of King Saul: an interpretation of I Samuel 9–31 in musicSiobhán Dowling Long Parallel narrative methods: Ramayana in the arts of Southeast Asia Jukka O. Miettinen

"The accessible and erudite, thought-through chapters of this book open up the foundational scriptures of the world religions and illumine their history of effects in the practices and self-understandings of their own traditions, and in their encounter with other religions and cultures. A first-class, thorough and original book for teaching and learning about the varied ways in which religions relate to their foundational scriptures, bringing together experts on these texts and their hermeneutics in different eras."- Maureen Junker-Kenny, Trinity College, Ireland"A nice collection of essays bound together by the common interest in hermeneutics as well as by the variety of topics and traditions presented that leads one to ponder on diversity and unity in reading sacred literature."- J. Verheyden, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses