theolinguistics (n.)

A term which has been used for the study of the relationship between LANGUAGE and religious thought and practice, as illustrated by ritual, sacred texts, preaching, doctrinal statements and private affirmations of belief. The distinctiveness of religious language usually takes the form of a special set of VARIETIES within a language, but special scripts and languages (as with Ge’ez in the Ethiopian Church) may also be found, and considerable attention needs to be paid to PHILOLOGICAL enquiry, given the way much religious language takes its origin from old texts and practices.