Flashbulbs and Fires

Oral tradition goes back a loooooong way, most likely to the beginnings of interpersonal communication. (Possibly even before that, with all the controversy that invites [wikipedia].) Its impacts have been broad, and are seen most poignantly in the religious traditions of the world; however, it alone has never had the power to bring religion onto the world stage. Only with the advent of writing was any religion able to spread across (or with) great empires such as Rome, and only with the advent of printing has any religion been able to become global.


We highly value good teachers; we travel long distances to hear them, we recommend them to our friends, we tend to act in response to their teachings, and we give them high marks on their professor ratings. Still, such a person in the sweeping timescales of history is like a flashbulb--incredibly powerful in his (or her) time, but lacking in holding power. For example, Jesus Christ was a fantastic oral teacher and impacted those he ministered to face to face immensely. Lives were changed, miracles wrought, and vision taught; however, as those who learned from him began to teach, problems arose, as the beginnings to several of the epistles of the apostles attest. The massive outpouring of light that came with Christ had a tremendous impact, but soon after his death it began to fade and writing was resorted to as a means of capturing the flash as a fire and nurturing it. From the first Christian notebooks--handwritten records of the stories and teachings of Christ and the apostles--come the beloved stories of the New Testament. Without writing, the remote epistular administration of the early Christian church would have been impossible; with writing it has grown to be a major world religion.

Buddha's impact was, initially and in this respect, very similar to Christ's: the Enlightened One taught the path to enlightenment for a significant part of his life, and his followers were affected quite deeply. Again, though, once he passed on the oral tradition could not keep his teachings perpetuated alone. It was rapidly realized that what he had taught could not be authentically passed down by word of mouth, and so bamboo leaves and Sanskrit were employed as a means of recording and maintaining this tradition. This carried the teachings of Buddha deep into Southeast Asia, Pakistan, Russia, and all across China. (This was greatly accelerated by the early adoption of Chinese block printing.)

Mohammed, SAAS, was another of brilliant flash bulb in history. As I've written about before, his teachings were first captured by means of a strong oral tradition, but when it was realized that the various spoken versions of his teachings and the teachings of the angel Gabriel a great regulation was made, resulting in the canonization of a written (!) version of the Koran with seven "approved" interpretations (readings) as well as the pruning of the Hadith (the non-canon traditions of what Mohammed taught). The previous emphasis on memorizing the Koran exactly led to a reverence for the book in which it was written; in turn, this lent it and its culture enough stability and durability that they spread from Arabia as far as China, Spain, Morocco, Turkey, and Timbuktu.

Sometimes religion is promulgated broadly by means of an oral tradition without a focal teacher. According to Emily, Akkadian religion was passed on primarily in song and epic form. As this people made various conquests, they taught the conquered populations their hymns and myths, leading to a cultural unification. In our group discussion, Emily pointed out that this actually led to the disuse and abandonment of an entire language, as the Akkadian influences outright overran it (though there is a great deal of evidence that Akkadian proceeded to adopt a great deal from this tongue). (Sumerian?) Without a written tradition backing up their culture and religion, it was easy to change over to Akkadian in a relatively short space of time, losing a great deal of their language and culture; on the other hand, the Akkadian empire was fairly large and lasted the better part of a century.

As you can see, religion is fairly limited in its effect when only transmitted by oral tradition. An invasion by another country can entirely halt a religion's transmission, or time can eat away at the mental records being kept. This is why oral systems alone are not the most powerful influence on religion's spread, but rather oral traditions kept burning by means of writing media.