Religionsfilologi

Religionsfilologi, or religious philology, is an interdisciplinary field that studies religious texts and traditions by applying philological methods. It examines the language, manuscript transmission, and historical development of sacred writings, liturgical materials, and related commentaries to understand their original meanings, variants, and reception over time.

The field emphasizes linguistic analysis, textual criticism, palaeography, and edition work. Researchers compare manuscript witnesses, reconstruct lost or corrupted readings, and study how translations, glosses, and paraphrases reflect shifts in doctrine, practice, and community boundaries. Contextualization within historical, cultural, and social settings is central, helping to illuminate how texts functioned in worship, teaching, and ritual life.

Religionsfilologi overlaps with religious studies, theology, linguistics, archaeology, and literary studies. It differs from broad theological interpretation by prioritizing language, textual evidence, and transmission history as essential sources for understanding beliefs and practices, rather than doctrine alone. The field has evolved from traditional classical philology toward critical editions, philological theory, and increasingly digital approaches to corpora and manuscript databases.

Common focal areas include sacred scriptures, apocrypha, commentaries, hymns, and liturgical compendia across languages such as Hebrew, Greek, Sanskrit, Pali, Arabic, Latin, Coptic, Chinese, and Old Norse. Through careful language analysis and historical contextualization, religionsfilologi contributes to broader inquiries into the formation, interpretation, and evolution of religious traditions.