Analysing Religious Discourse

A comprehensive introduction to all the major research approaches to religious language, from a variety of linguistic perspectives.

Analysing Religious Discourse introduces a variety of different approaches to the empirical analysis of religious discourse in a variety of contexts. Comprising chapters that cover broad topics in the field of language and religion, it presents a lively discussion of current research in the analysis of religious discourse.Language plays a key role in religion, framing how people describe spiritual experience and giving structure to religious beliefs and practices. Bringing together work from a team of world-renowned scholars, this volume introduces contemporary research on religious discourse from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. It introduces methods for analysis of a range of different kinds of text and talk, including institutional discourse within organised religions, discourse around spirituality and spiritual experience within religious communities, media discourse about the role of religion and spirituality in society, translations of sacred texts, political discourse, and ritual language. Engaging and easy-to-read, it is accessible to researchers across linguistics, religious studies, and other related disciplines. A comprehensive introduction to all the major research approaches to religious language, it will become a key resource in the emerging inter-disciplinary field of language and religion.