2026-11-12 00:52 UTC
Replies (2)
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@SoyViking@hexbear.net 2026-11-12 01:20
If you want to do serious scholarship on a religion you should be able to read the original texts as well as to speak with practitioners.
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@5318008@lemmy.ml 2026-11-12 19:05
Well, it’s not a matter of just knowing some arbitrarily chosen Asian languages… it’s a matter of knowing: The languages of the original texts The languages spoken by the majority of scholars The languages spoken by the majority of actual practitioners. Imagine a Christianity scholar who couldn’t tell you the difference between ἀγάπη, ἔρως, or φιλία. That would be pathetic. Imagine an Islam scholar who doesn’t understand the difference between Salah and Dhikr. That’s also pathetic. I don’t think a scholar necessarily needs complete mastery over these languages… but they should be proficient enough to get information from the source material when they have questions.