Religious
In the context of Christianity, heaven is sometimes symbolically depicted with saints and/or angels playing harps in it. This symbolism may derive from the account of the heavenly vision recorded in the Christian Bible in Revelation 14:2 reading: "And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps." (KJV) This may be a reference to the kind of harp played, e.g., by David during Old Testament times. Modern orchestral music sometimes employs the ethereal sound of the modern orchestral harp to depict heaven.
Read more about this topic: Harp, As A Symbol
Famous quotes containing the word religious:
“Better risk loss of truth than chance of error—that is your faith-vetoer’s exact position. He is actively playing his stake as much as the believer is; he is backing the field against the religious hypothesis, just as the believer is backing the religious hypothesis against the field.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“... the loss of belief in future states is politically, though certainly not spiritually, the most significant distinction between our present period and the centuries before. And this loss is definite. For no matter how religious our world may turn again, or how much authentic faith still exists in it, or how deeply our moral values may be rooted in our religious systems, the fear of hell is no longer among the motives which would prevent or stimulate the actions of a majority.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“The short lesson that comes out of long experience in political agitation is something like this: all the motive power in all of these movements is the instinct of religious feeling. All the obstruction comes from attempting to rely on anything else. Conciliation is the enemy.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)