What this chamber argues
- Religion and spirituality are humanity's oldest attempt to answer the questions philosophy only later made systematic: what is sacred, how should we live, and what survives death.
- From the funerary spells of Egypt and the hymns of the Rigveda to William James's psychology of belief, every civilisation has left a scripture — and the comparison of them is itself a form of wisdom.
Primary works in this chamber (20)
- Ancient Egyptian — The Book of the Dead (Spells for Coming Forth by Day) (−1550) — Book
- Hinduism — The Rigveda (selected hymns) (−1500) — Book
- Judaism — The Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) (−500) — Book
- Christianity — The New Testament (60) — Book
- Islam — The Qur'an (650) — Book
- Buddhism — The Dhammapada (−300) — Book
- Hinduism — The Upanishads (−700) — Book
- Hinduism — The Bhagavad Gita (−200) — Book
- Laozi — Tao Te Ching (−400) — Book
- Confucius — Analects (−475) — Book
- Zhuang Zhou — Zhuangzi (−300) — Book
- Rumi — Masnavi (Book I) (1258) — Book
- Augustine — Confessions (397) — Book
- Thomas à Kempis — The Imitation of Christ (1418) — Book
- Josephus — Antiquities of the Jews (93) — Book
- Zoroastrianism — The Avesta (Zend-Avesta) (−1000) — Book
- Sikhism — The Guru Granth Sahib (selected hymns) (1604) — Book
- K'iche' Maya — The Popol Vuh (1550) — Book
- Anonymous — Theologia Germanica (1350) — Book
- William James — The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) — Book
Connected chambers
- Philosophy — The sacred and the philosophical are twins: the Upanishads, the Tao Te Ching, and the Analects are read as scripture and as philosophy at once.
- Wisdom Literature — Scripture and the gnomic wisdom tradition share a root — Proverbs, the Dhammapada, and the Analects all teach how to live through aphorism and parable.
- History — Josephus writes sacred history, and the dating of every scripture is a historical problem — the religious record and the historical record are inseparable.