Symbolic writing in religious texts held by country (8)
I believe the answer is:
notation
'symbolic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'religious texts held by country' is the wordplay.
'religious texts' becomes 'OT' (Old Testament).
'held by' is an insertion indicator.
'country' becomes 'nation' (synonyms).
'ot' inserted inside 'nation' is 'NOTATION'.
'writing in' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for notation that I've seen before include "A comment added to a text" , "System of musical symbols" , "Set of symbols representing quantity etc." , "Written comment" , "An added comment or instruction" .)