section_path: The influence of religious texts
section_name: The influence of religious texts
paragraph_text: The influence of religious texts
  
  Religion has had a major influence on literature, through works like the Vedas, the Torah, the Bible, and the Quran.
  
  The King James Version of the Bible has been called "the most influential version of the most influential book in the world, in what is now its most influential language", "the most important book in English religion and culture", and "arguably the most celebrated book in the English-speaking world," principally because of its literary style and widespread distribution. Prominent atheist figures such as the late Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins have praised the King James Version as being "a giant step in the maturing of English literature" and "a great work of literature", respectively, with Dawkins adding: "A native speaker of English who has never read a word of the King James Bible is verging on the barbarian".
  
  Societies in which preaching has great importance, and those in which religious structures and authorities have a near-monopoly of reading and writing and/or a censorship role (as, for example, in the European Middle Ages), may impart a religious gloss to much of the literature those societies produce or retain. The traditions of close study of religious texts has furthered the development of techniques and theories in literary studies.