Sacred: Exhibition Catalogue

Sacred is the lush official catalog of the groundbreaking British Library exhibit bearing the same name, which presents many of the world’s most beautiful religious texts for the first time. Illustrations from rare and exquisite examples of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim sacred texts from the Library’s collections, along with unique treasures on loan from other institutions, are showcased and accompanied by essays from three of today’s leading religious scholars that explore aspects of the three faiths, including their historical development and contemporary meaning. Stunning full-color illustrations of many previously unreproduced manuscripts from the shared history of the three major religions are paired are brought into compellingly modern context by perceptive writers on religion such as Karen Armstrong, Everett Fox, Frank Peters, and Kathleen Doyle.
 
The manuscripts featured in Sacred include one of the earliest surviving Qur‘ans, completed 160 years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, and a sixth-century Christian text that was suppressed by the church for failing to include the genealogy of Christ. Other fascinating manuscripts include an ancient Jewish text containing an illustration of God’s face—forbidden in Jewish tradition—and the Torah scroll used by the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng. Sacred pairs images of these remarkable works with commentary from scholars and critics that explores the relationship between these three major faiths.
 
Accompanied by over 200 color illustrations, Sacred represents the first time that such remarkable and venerable manuscripts have been brought together in a single volume—illustrating the remarkable shared history of three of the world’s major religions.

John Reeve was head of education at the British Museum from 1982–2003.  He has published extensively on Japanese art, world religions, museology, and education.