Even before the beginning of recorded history, men and women have had a desire to document their innermost spiritual feelings—to share them with others, even to help change, or reform, the lives of those around them. People have expressed these feelings in a number of ways—through pictures, symbols, verbal communication, and written language. You might say that, in a very broad sense, the word scripture includes all of these expressions.
The earliest traces of man's spiritual outreach show up in paintings on the walls of caves in what is now Europe. For example, in the Pyrenees Mountains of southern France, deep within a cave known as Trois Freres, an eerie figure has stared at onlookers for some thirty thousand years. His dark, compelling eyes peer out through the mask of a stag with antlers. Scholars tell us that this figure represents a shaman—a priest or medicine man of primitive cultures.
Animal and nature worship continued for thousands of years in tribelike societies that grew out of Ice Age communities and spread worldwide. Before Europeans set foot upon the Americas, for instance, more than two thousand Indian tribes with different languages and cultures populated these vast continents, with the shaman retaining his position at the spiritual center of the tribe. Ceremonial prayers and traditions were passed down from generation to generation, but none were recorded in holy books. Instead they were depicted on animal skins, as well as in chants, drumbeating, music, and dance.
