The Discovery of Words. Linguistic Situations of Religious Contact during the Early Phase of European Colonization

Abstract

The special issue The Discovery of Words is devoted to situations of religious contact resulting from the encounter of European discoverers with indigenous populations. The discovery of a new world challenged the former framework of religious thinking. Here, the European explorers did not only discover new worlds but also new words, notions and concepts that resulted from communicative contact. Finding a suitable common means of communication became a salient task for the religious experts of the time although they could only imagine the other as a subject of mission. However, religious contacts in a context of discovery and early colonialism are not expressions of a mere one-way street of impact, as a reflection on one’s own language and conceptual framework became necessary for the Europeans. The meta-communicative ideas developed in colonial settings all over the world are an integral and important part of the dynamics of the history of religion between Asia and Europe.