Mary Ellen Snodgrass

Encyclopedia of World Scriptures Mary Ellen Snodgrass

From the time of human beginnings, holy words, chants, liturgy and narratives have enabled individuals to communicate the mysteries of the universe. Bodies of liturgical composition had to survive oral transmission for centuries until calligraphers could inscribe them in pictograph, symbol, or coded cipher or write them in words on stone, mural, scroll, parchment, or paper. Through repetitions of sacred speech and writing, couples enter holy wedlock, infants receive consecration and blessing, youths advance to adulthood, rulers dedicate temporal powers to God, cities pledge themselves to peace, and the dead pass from an earthly existence to the afterlife.