Blurb:

This chapter discusses difficulties of differentiating “religious” from “cultural” phenomena, as well as “scriptures” from “classics.” It further discusses how it may be possible to study “scriptural” texts constructively in shared discourse with scholars of differing religious backgrounds. Such a common discourse would be facilitated by a heuristic model of scripture as a text extending functionally in two directions, towards the human through interpretation and towards an Absolute or Transcendent ontologically.