Theories of language and discourse studies: methodological notes for a religious discourse analysis

Abstract

Under the paradigm of Modernity, one believed in the direct referentiality between concept and world, signs and reality. With the new linguistic studies, the fissure and discontinuity between thing and word revealed the limitation of metanarratives and their derivations. The natural consequence of this horizon was a real turning point in the Human Sciences. The language was perceived not like direct  reflection of the things, but like symbolic. For the studies of religion, these renewed perspectives on language theories served as paradigmatic change, producing a true methodological explosion. Thus methodologies for the language studies have been gaining ground in the studies of religion, making it possible to understand it as a locus of meaning. In this way, the multiple languages of religion, sometimes treated as real's distortion or alienating ideological, are accessed as a complex system of narratives, symbols, rites, arts and performances suitable for the creation and understanding of the World. From this concern, the researches of the Languages of Religion are established whose theoretical contributions and objects advance to the symbolic production of religion. Within this methodological discussion, concerned with understanding and interpreting the languages produced by religion, the article intends to present the Discourse Analysis translated for the studies of religion and its methodological contributions to the studies of religious discourse. The text will present, in the first part, the main theoretical contributions of the French Discourse Analysis. This task will point out some intuitions and provocations enabling a Religious Discourse Analysis.