Pius vates

Abstract

The question we are dealing with in the paper is as follows: to what extent might the notion of “religious literature” be functional if applied both to the early modern literature and to the contemporary literary culture? Does it mean “sacred literature”, simply opposed to the “secular” one, whatever it might mean? The author’s suggestion is to use the notion of “religious literature” more consistently, strictly according to the liturgical functions of the text (e.g. the prayers, hymns or homiletics) while the term “sacred literature” should be used regarding only the so-called “Sacred Books” i.e. the Revelation recognized in a given religious system. The sense of the term “pious literature” or “pious poet” however would be much broader, crossing the limitations of religious functions of the text and reflecting a quasi-prophetic intellectual and moral status of the writer.