Introduction (S. La Porta and D. Shulman) -- PART ONE CREATION -- 1. Creation through Hieroglyphs: The Cosmic Grammatology of Ancient Egypt (Jan Assmann) -- 2. KUN-the Existence-Bestowing Word in Islamic Mysticism: A Survey of Texts on the Creative Power of Language (Sara Sviri) -- 3. Adam's Naming of the Animals: Naming or Creation? (Michael E. Stone) -- 4. Greek Distrust of Language (Margalit Finkelberg) -- PART TWO CULTURAL ENCODING -- 5. This is no Lotus, it is a Face: Poetics as Grammar in Dandin's Investigation of the Simile (Yigal Bronner) -- 6. The Performance of Writing in Western Zhou China (Martin Kern) -- 7. Counseling through Enigmas: Monastic Leadership and Linguistic Techniques in Sixth-Century Gaza (Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony) -- 8. Devotional, Covenantal and Yogic: Three Episodes in the Religious Use of Alphabet and Letter from a Millennium of Great Vehicle Buddhism (Dan Martin) -- PART THREE SELF-TRANSFORMATION -- 9. Powers of Language in Kabbalah: Comparative Reflections (Jonathan Garb) -- 10. The Poetics of Grammar in the Javano-Balinese Tradition (Thomas M. Hunter) -- 11. How to Bring a Goddess into Being through Visible Sound (David Shulman) -- 12. Translation and Transformation: Armenian Meditations on the Metamorphic Power of Language (Sergio La Porta) -- Index.