Sir Philip Sidney maintains that religion and poetry have walked together for millennia, as far back as the Romans and further still to the Psalms.1 The Hebrew Bible in fact contains many poetic passages, whether in historical books like Judges, emphatically poetic books like Job, or prophetic books like Ezekiel and Micah. Deborah, David, and Isaiah found their inspired voices in verse. Indeed, as Sidney reminds us, the word for poet in Latin, vates, lies behind the title Vatican, denoting prophecy and vision.2 Although the existence of poetry in the New Testament is more contested,3 the Revelation of John at the very least can be viewed as apocalyptic poetry. Eastern religious sacred texts also feature poetic elements,4 as does the Qur'an.5
In addition to there being poetic passages within sacred texts themselves, poets for millennia have borrowed from holy books in their own...
