I've never seen a good chart for sacred texts aside from Christian stuff. So I've made one myself, the top editions are mostly the ones I own myself and are all by qualified academics in their respective fields. I haven't read all of the bottom versions, but I researched the translators of each to check they're reasonably qualified, and they were mainly chosen for being easier to get hold of or cheaper (hence the Penguin Classics).
Hopefully you guys find this useful, I learned a fair bit about the wealth (or sometimes dearth) of English translations of various religious texts. I stuck to extant religions so it didn't become massive. Some religions like Baha'i would deserve to get in but they either don't have clearly defined texts or there aren't translations.
Buddhism is tough to summarize! I stuck to Mahayana for simplicity.
Joseph Parker
Agreed it almost deserves its own chart.
Maybe charts of religions by region? An Africa chart, etc..
Evan Richardson
I'm not the OP, but I have heard good things about In The Buddha's Words. It's obviously not specifically Zen but I would think anyone interested would want to read it.
Isaac Foster
I think someone more knowledgeable would have to make those.
Isaiah Hall
>extant >Iching, sunjata, etc. fucking lol
Cooper Turner
Damn, just noticed a bunch of errors. Hopefully all fixed now.
The Sundiata oral tradition is alive and well, it's an active area of research for folklorists and linguists. I Ching is still used by mystics, and is culturally important in any case, even if most Chinese are atheist by western standards.
Luis Roberts
>Damn, just noticed a bunch of errors. Hopefully all fixed now. for this, sleep on it after you make a fake thread
Hudson Sanders
>fake thread ???
Easton Jenkins
Rename the "Buddhism" section to "Theravada Buddhism" instead, please.
Remove the I Ching from the "Chinese Folk Religion" section please.
Also >Judaism >Old Testament of the Holy Bible >No Rabbinic literature Fucking Stop
Justin Garcia
>leaves search terms in URL >ernst is obvious shill for hypothetically-liberalized-Islam fetishization go home, cuck
Luke Thomas
You have dated translations for Judaism and Chinese stuff, see NJPS, Burton Watson's Analects and Zhuangzi, Alfred Huang's I-Ching.
Your chart is worthless because at no point did you ask yourself whether throwing scriptures at people without any context was a good idea - in case you were wondering why charts you find good for "Christianity" and not versions of the Bible don't just have versions of the Bible in them. That is because the relationship between text and religion is different for each and everyone of the listed faiths, Confucian classics aren't complete and aren't "sacred" by any stretch of the word.
Brayden Stewart
>NJPS That's literally what's in the chart
>Burton Watson How is his less dated than Edward Slingerland's, which was published in 2003?
I have a feeling you didn't actually read the chart and just decided to take the opportunity to show your entry-level knowledge. The chart is just basic texts of various religions, for people looking for them. A comprehensive chart would be too big and basically impossible.
Liam Peterson
>decided to take the opportunity to show your entry-level knowledge To be fair the chart does this too, the idea that Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Folk Religion being separate categories is a western spook.
Juan Gomez
Any religion being separate is a spook. Christianity is a syncretism of pharisaic judaism, jewish apocalypticism, greek philosophy, and a few unique teachings from Jesus and Paul. Islam is a syncretism of Judaism, Christianity, and local Arab folklore.
Caleb Johnson
>How is his less dated than Edward Slingerland' I'm talking about Lau
>A comprehensive chart would be too big and basically impossible. Exactly, pick one religion and do something useful with it. Speaking of which there are already better charts for Islam and Chinese literature/religion, get with the program
Xavier Morales
>I'm talking about Lau That's why it says "accessible or cheaper", the Penguin editions are more widely available and cost less, and D.C. Lau's translations are totally acceptable for a cheaper alternative. Lau was a top scholar in his time, and his translations are from the latter half of the 20th century, they're not so horrendously out of date that they're useless, in fact they're still quite good considering the difficultly of the texts.
>Exactly, pick one religion and do something useful with it. Speaking of which there are already better charts for Islam and Chinese literature/religion, get with the program This is an overview chart. There are no charts for Zoroastrianism, Sikhism. Hinduism, Shinto, or African myths. Most people have no clue what their primary texts even are. Or someone might just want something basic like a Quran or short ahadith collection. It's serving a purpose, not trying to be anything more. I get what you're saying, if someone wants to make a "Start With The Ainu" chart, that would be awesome too. Your enthusiasm for more depth is great, and I may well go on to make more extensive charts for specific religions.
The jewish section is lacking. The chart would be better if in addition to the Tanakh it included the Talmud Bavli, and the Zohar
Oliver Campbell
Ive wanted something like this for a while, good work OP
Andrew Myers
Good point about the Talmud, I didn't include it at first because it's not scripture like the Tanakh, but it's so important it does bear including, so here you go.
Zohar on the other hand, isn't exactly central for most jews, so I think that would be better for a more specialized chart.
Thanks!
Kayden Phillips
> Including recommended translations
Thanks OP!
Wyatt Ramirez
Good shit op. Appreciate your chutzspa
Jeremiah Sanchez
>73 volumes
kek
Ayden Brooks
Any charts for orthodox christianity?
Carter Miller
Pretty nice job OP, actually impresed
Jackson James
The Talmud is ridiculous, it's basically an entire library of Rabbi autism.
Colton Nguyen
>and the Zohar A lot of Orthodox Jews really really hate the idea that non-Jews think Kabbalah is popular among Jews let alone a core text.
Austin Myers
Replace Tanakh with either Talmud, be it whole or the most notable volumes, or Kabbalah. I mean, you are keeping the old testament, so there is no reason to repeat.
Gabriel Ramirez
Good work, OP. These seem really interesting and serve as a good, concise guide. Thank you, kind OP.
Charles Wilson
What are your thoughts on Takuan Soho and the Rinzai school?
Connor Ward
It'd be nice to see Bahá'í on the chart.
Jace Butler
>Reading the Hadith before the Sunnah >No Catechism or Commentaries in the Christianity section >No Fudoki or Norito
Liam Watson
>Reading the Hadith before the Sunnah The ahadith are sources for the sunnah, you can't read the sunnah
>No Catechism or Commentaries in the Christianity section This is an essential core texts chart
>No Fudoki or Norito What do you think the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki are? They're among the earliest sources for norito and Japanese culture in general.
