Introduction

This chapter begins by highlighting the importance of studying religious language before proceeding to a discussion of how religion can be defined. In order to highlight some of the shared characteristics of religion while taking seriously the extensive degree of variation, it draws on a family resemblance model. The notions of metaphor, metonymy, embodiment, agency, and force are also briefly described along with their significance for religious language. The field of Cognitive Linguistics is then introduced, beginning with a brief history and a discussion of how language reveals how users conceptualize the world around them. The chapter concludes with an overview of the book.