with reverence and ecstasy.”25 Psalm 119:97 gives expression to this outlook: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day.” Buddhists say the same sort of thing about their texts.26 Works that are read over and over again tend to be committed to memory. Indeed, Griffiths argues that memorization is highly valued by religious readers. He goes further, maintaining that religious texts often are constructed in a way that aids memorization. For religious readers “the ideally read work is
Page 53