Canonicity & Sacred Texts

This mini-collection ranges from introductory material exploring the notion of sacred texts and whether they feature in all religions and definitions of canons and canonicity, to some historical surveys of canon formation in various traditions as well as some specific yet accessible (for students) material about controversies or debates about what has made its way into a specific canon. The Main Collections in the Equinox Religion Library (such as the South & East Asia Collection) include much more detailed material on textual history and transmission within individual traditions than is highlighted here.

Related Interest: Books, Classrooms & Libraries: Literacy as Social Practice, Books in Public PlacesRelated Interest: Books & Texts as Iconic and Ritual InstrumentsRelated Interest: Early Literacy, Scribal Cultures & Writing as Technology
Related Interest: Books, Classrooms & Libraries: Literacy as Social Practice, Books in Public PlacesRelated Interest: Books & Texts as Iconic and Ritual InstrumentsRelated Interest: Early Literacy, Scribal Cultures & Writing as TechnologyAbstracts
Two-page spread of an 11th-century (CE) North African Qur'an written in a form of the 'new style kufic' script on parchment.
Abstracts

Image: Two-page spread of an 11th-century (CE) North African Qur'an written in a form of the 'new style kufic' script on parchment. Metropolitan Museum of Art (public domain)