Our research group basically assumes that there are certain texts that circulate within societies possessing a normative and identity-shaping character, whether for the society as a whole or for certain groups within it. Compared to other texts, we posit that there is a significant difference in authority and relevance attributed to them. Such texts are associated with various cultural and religious uses — e.g., interpretation, performance, citation, and attribution — through which their special status and truth claims are expressed and reified. We refer to these processes as sacralization. In addition to the more readily apparent examples of sacred writings, the canonical books of religious communities, we are also interested in sacralized writings in the context of literature, law, and politics.
