religious scholar
Studies sacred texts
A religious scholar is someone who studies religion academically or interprets sacred texts within a tradition.
The term covers both devotional experts—rabbis, imams, theologians—and secular academics who analyze religion historically or sociologically: Religious scholars debated the manuscript's authenticity.
The phrase often appears in news reports seeking authoritative commentary on matters of faith.
- imamMuslim religious guide
- clericOrdained religious leader
- theologyStudy of the divine
- seminary trainingReligious vocation education
- philologyStudy of historical texts
exegesis · philosopher · mufti · hermeneutics · church fathers · pundit · sacred texts · Dead Sea Scrolls · rabbi · canon law · oral tradition · historian · doctoral thesis · tenure track · apologetics · educator · monk · pastor
- scholarsprofessors, professor, researcher, researchers, academic
- humanities careershistorian, philosopher, linguist, archaeologist, anthropologist
- religious teacherscatechist, Bible teacher, children's minister, youth minister, youth pastor
- clergypriest, bishop, pope, nun, monk
- cultural scholarsanthropologist, ethnographer, ethnologist, folklorist, cultural critic
- religious womennun, sister, abbess, prioress, novice
religious scholarantitheist
One opposing belief in deities
atheist · secularist · agnostic · nonbeliever · heathen
religious, religion, religions, religiously, religiosity, irreligious, scholar, scholars, scholarly