The New English Bible
All over the world, early impressions of religion are often associated with unbearable tedium. In the West, the eye following the long lines of Gothic arches, or trying to make out the detail of stained-glass windows, while the priest intones incomprehensible texts; in the Far East, having to sit still for long periods, looking at the faces of the Buddha images and wondering whether they too get bored, while the resonant Sanskrit and Chinese syllables boom on hypnotically; in India, Sanskrit again, slightly relieved by the clanging of bells at the light ceremony; in the Middle East, the gaze tracing never-ending Arabesque ornamentation in the mosque while the half-understood Arabic drones away. Nearly everyone agrees that the actual language of the original religious texts is hopelessly obscure to modern hearers, and that one’s real idea of the religion is based on simplified teachings given at special meetings for children, in …