In addition to being sources of knowledge due to the value of their wisdom, sacred texts are used as objects of veneration because of the spiritual power they emanate for believers. 

Scriptures reinforce the spread of religious ideas, beliefs, doctrines and institutions, as well as practices and rituals. The transmission of tradition entails reproducing and reiterating certain patterns, whilst at the same time offering a certain degree of innovation and transformation, of both the texts and the liturgical and meditative practices.

Religious books have always been used as talismans; they serve as protection and express the believer’s attitude of respect towards the sacred. They play a central role in worship, celebrations and ceremonies or accompany prayer and pilgrimage to holy places. The Torah scroll in the synagogue or the volume of the Koran in a believer’s home, for example, is kept in a prominent place and carefully maintained out of reach of the profane.

Scriptures can be the object of meditation. In the case of Buddhism, the word of Buddha, key to attaining wisdom and liberation, has led to the creation of texts without diminishing orality as a result. The monastic practices of memorizing, reciting and ritually venerating texts are just as respected and beneficial as writing, copying and reading them. The illumination of mediaeval Biblical manuscripts or the use of Koranic verses in ornamental calligraphy are other examples of artistic expression, spiritual cultivation and devotion.

Through reading, invocation and prayer, the believer returns the created word to its uncreated sources, recalling or reproducing the act of revelation. Initiating oneself in prayer is like submerging oneself in the sound expressed by creation. Forms of prayer such as contemplative prayer, or other psychophysical techniques, such as meditation based on careful listening, controlled breathing or the recitation and repetition of sounds and words, increase the disposition of the devotee’s body and mind to attune to the rhythm of the universe.