[f. prec. + -ISM.]
1. Strict adherence to the text, esp. of the Scriptures; the principles or method of a textualist.
1863. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), II. 286. The arbitrary textualism of the Puritan divines.
1895. Thinker, VIII. 405. He feels unable … to burden his audience with minutiæ, subtleties, pedantries, textualisms.
2. That department of scholarship which deals with the text of the Bible; textual criticism.
1888. Church Times, 318. Reputations … acquired merely in the field of grammar and textualism, not in theology proper.
1908. Times, Lit. Supp., 5 March, 74/2. Textualism is not a popular study.
