textualisms

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
3. Textual criticism, especially that of the Bible.