Sacred Text Site Explains World Faiths

By: Charles Bowen Finding the actual texts that are sacred to specific religions around the world can be a daunting task, even when you have access to a world-class library. How many libraries can provide precious shelf space, for instance, for the Akaranga Sutra and Kalpa Sutra of Jainism or the Zend-Avesta of Zoroastrianism, the Kitab-i-Aqdas of Baha'i, or even the early books of Christianity?

Fortunately, because of an important Web site called Internet Sacred Text Archives, you no longer have to hunt those dusty shelves. Calling itself "a quiet place in cyberspace devoted to religious tolerance and scholarship," the Sacred Text Archives is the brainchild of J.B. Hare. Working with a number of colleagues and volunteers, Hare has compiled and preserved a vast reservoir of religious and philosophical texts from a number of public domain sources.

And what journalists and other researchers will love is the fact that Hare also has added detailed information on the sources and standards deployed for each separate project. The entire site can be searched or browsed through topics listed on the main page, ranging from Atlantis to Zoroastrianism. Each topic contains a number of accurately transcribed (and sometimes, translated) primary and secondary documents, such as first-hand collections of oral traditions.

To get started, visit http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm, where the comprehensive home page lists along its left column dozens of topics, including all the major religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Confuscianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Mormonism, Shinto, and so on), as well as an intriguing collection of related subjects. "Americana," for instance, links to a page devoted to uniquely American expressions of belief, from Native American and the Shakers to "Pow-wows or Long Lost Friend," an 1820s manuscript by Pennsylvania Dutch healer George Hohman, which combined home remedies and folk invocations with "a unique creole of Christian theology."

Hare even gives equal time to non-belief. The "Age of Reason" section serves up the full text of writings by free thinkers who explored the Big Questions, from the existence of a supreme being to the possibility of absolute truth. From here, you can reach the words of Roger Bacon and Giordano Bruno, Thomas Paine and Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, Robert G. Ingersoll, Clarence Darrow, and others.

And there are alternate texts available on the site. Click on the "Bible" link to get connections to not only the King James version, but also The Apocrypha, the Vulgate, the Greek New Testament, the Tanach, and the Jewish Publication Society version. Meanwhile, click on the "Islam" link and reach several translations of the Qur'an, as well as Hadith texts and Sufi texts.

Other considerations for using the Sacred Text Archives in your writing and editing:

1. For another way to view the extensive archives here, click on the "Map" link at the top of any page to reach a detailed site map. The result is an alphabetized, hyperlinked outline of the entire site.

2. If you write about the site in your news columns, you might want to alert students to its Sacred Texts Timeline (http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/timeline.htm), which gives the history of the texts as well as a few other relevant events to put it in perspective.

3. Also of interest is its Origin of Major Religions timeline (http://www.sacred-texts.com/time/origtime.htm, which illustrates the approximate dates for the beginnings of each of the 12 major world religions.
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