Handwriting MattersShort film on the importance of handwriting in religious contexts

26 November 2021

Photo: CSMC

Despite the availability of prints and digital media, handwriting still plays a significant role in many religious contexts. In this short film, CSMC researchers explain why manuscripts prevail – and why printed words sometimes fall short of expressing the meaning of handwritten ones.

In many areas of modern life, print products have replaced manuscripts. Typing a text is often quicker and more convenient than writing it by hand. In certain contexts, however, handwriting cannot be easily replaced by printed matter. In religious practices in particular, the handwritten word is often retained. To be sure, this insistence on handwriting is partly based on conservatism – but that is by no means the only reason.

In this short film, CSMC researchers Cornelius Berthold, Steffen Döll, Theresa Müller, and Ilona Steimann explain the special meaning of manuscripts in the religious sphere. Their examples from Islamic, Japanese, and Jewish Studies illustrate why manuscripts not only play a central role in the past and present of these religions, but will continue to exist in the future.

Cornelius Berthold is a research associate on the project 'The Last Decades of Arabic Manuscript Culture (1870–1930): Coexistence and Interaction with Printing'.

Steffen Döll is professor for Japanese Buddhism and a member of the Research Filed 'Creating Originals'.

Theresa Müller is a research associate on the project 'Originals Created by Copying. Letters from Heaven and their Agency in Popular Religious Belief (15th to 20th Century)'.

Ilona Steimann is the Principal Investigator of the project 'Beyond Hebraism: Hebrew Manuscripts in a Late Medieval Monastic Setting'.