Theolinguistics: history of formation, conceptual apparatus, and research methods

The article examines the process of institutionalization of theolinguistics as an independent interdisciplinary field studying the patterns of interaction between the linguistic system and religious consciousness. The aim of the work is to systematize the historical stages of the discipline's development, scientifically verify its conceptual and terminological apparatus, and model a comprehensive methodological toolkit. The second half of the 20th century should be considered as the chronological starting point for the institutionalization of theolinguistics, when within the framework of Western philosophy of language and anthropological linguistics, the prerequisites for distinguishing sacred discourse as a separate object of study began to form. Initially, the research was fragmented: theologians focused on the exegesis of biblical texts, anthropologists on the ritual formulas of archaic cultures, and linguists on the structural analysis of prayers and sermons without considering their transcendent nature. The methodology is based on a synthesis of historical-genetic analysis, conceptual typology, and discursive modeling, supplemented by a linguistic and cultural analysis of the sacred vocabulary of the Avar language. As a result, a detailed chronology of the field's development has been established, from the first foreign publications of the 1970s to the contemporary stage of integration with cognitive sciences and digital media. The heuristic value of the methodological synthesis of cognitive, semiotic, and theological approaches for analyzing sacred texts has been demonstrated. The obtained data is applicable in the area of comparative-confessional analysis, the creation of specialized lexicographic databases, the development of university courses, and the facilitation of inter-religious dialogue. It is concluded that contemporary theolinguistics successfully overcomes the epistemological gap between secular philology and theology, serving as an effective tool for decoding deep spiritual and cultural codes. Further development of the field requires the creation of large electronic corpora, the expansion of the scope of cross-cultural comparisons, and full academic consolidation in educational standards. The author justifies the need to transition from spontaneous interest to a systemic paradigm of the study of the sacred word and the practical verification of the identified concepts in real communicative practices. Only through the analysis of recurring patterns – syntactic, semantic, pragmatic – can random coincidence be separated from the ontological essence of the sacred utterance.