Where do sacred words belong?
Not just in scrolls or books, but in places. In raised platforms and ritual movements.
In voices rising from wood, stone, and memory.
Since my last update, I’ve been exploring new ways to reflect on these themes — not only through writing, but through sound.
One of these experiments has taken the form of audio. Using NotebookLM, I’ve created a series of reflective pieces that explore how sacred texts are proclaimed, embodied, and received.
This piece is drawn from my study, Proclaiming Holy Scriptures: A Study of Place and Ritual.
It traces the choreography of voice and architecture across Judaism, Christianity, and Islam — not merely as historical practice, but as sacred performance.
In these traditions, the Word is not only read — it is proclaimed. And not just anywhere. It is lifted in synagogues from the bimah, resounds in churches from the ambo, and echoes in mosques beside the mimbar.
Each space tells us: this reading is not informational. It is incarnational.
The sacred enters when we attend with body, voice, and place.
🎧 Listen to the Reflection
Let it carry you through ancient sanctuaries and sacred gestures —
from the wooden platform of Ezra to the raised ambos of cathedrals, from the chant of Torah to the rhythm of the Qur’an.
These are not passive readings. They are performances of encounter — reenactments of Sinai, of Nazareth, of the first revelation in a cave.
The voice is not a messenger alone. It becomes the place where the sacred arrives.
💬 Reflect With Me
You wish to sit quietly with these questions after listening:
- What has been the “place” of scripture in your own experience?
- Have you ever felt moved not only by the words, but by the space from which they were spoken?
- How might reclaiming the body, the architecture, and the voice in sacred reading change the way we worship?
This offering is not a conclusion — it is an opening.
May it lead you to listen more deeply, to stand more attentively, and to speak the Word as if it matters. Because it does.
—
🪶 David Pereyra
Author of Proclaiming Holy Scriptures: A Study of Place and Ritual (Routledge, 2021)
Perspectives 