textualism

Noun

textualism (countable and uncountable, plural textualisms)

1. Strict adherence to a text, especially to the Bible.
   • First, building on the earlier work of philologists, historians, orientalists, and biblical scholars we have noted already, the late 19th and early 20th centuries witness growth and development of textualism, in which words are seen—no, revered—as the referential embodiment of meaning and truth.2021, Christopher Hancock, Christianity and Confucianism: Culture, Faith and Politics, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 328
2. A formalist legal theory that interprets based on the ordinary meaning of the legal text.
   • And this is the upshot of textualism: textualists do not want judges to make the law. This, at least, is the official doctrine, and it sounds very democratic.2007, Andrei Marmor, Law in the Age of Pluralism, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 198
   • The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is generally committed to textualism, a judicial approach that focuses on the words of the law as written rather than its larger purpose or the intentions of its drafters. In a 2015 appearance at Harvard Law School, Justice Kagan said that textualism had...2022 June 30, Adam Liptak, “Supreme Court Limits E.P.A.’s Ability to Restrict Power Plant Emissions”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
3. Textual criticism, especially that of the Bible.