Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions

by Richard Kieckhefer, George D. Bond (Editor)

Every major religion exalts certain individuals who occupy a dual role. On the one hand they serve as exemplars of virtue to be imitated, and on the other hand they stand removed from other mortals, privileged and unique. Christianity knows them as saints, and in the study of religion the term has been taken over and applied to similar figures in other traditions. The essays in this volume analyze the role of the saint in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, providing both a comparative and an interpretive view of sainthood.

The notion of sainthood is problematic in two ways. First, can the category be usefully applied to individuals in religious traditions other than Christianity? How has it manifested itself, and what differences are there in the various manifestations of sainthood? Second, where individuals are considered to have risen above the norms in these different traditions, how is it possible to resolve the tension between the saint's imitability and his or her otherness, between imitating and venerating the saint? The authors consider these questions in relation to a wide range of individuals in all the major traditions.

Genres: Religion

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

"John Evans Professor of Religious Studies. Research interests focus mainly on the late Middle Ages, with special interest in church architecture and in the history of witchcraft and magic. Currently writing books on "the mystical presence of Christ" in the late Middle Ages (an exploration of the relationship between ordinary and extraordinary piety, between shared religious culture and exceptional religious experience) and late medieval church-building (an inquiry into the collaboration and conflict among different interest groups in the creation of monuments meant to serve and symbolize communal interests). Books include European Witch Trials (Routledge & Kegan Paul; 1976),Repression of Heresy in Medieval Germanyi (Pennsylvania, 1979), Unquiet Souls (Chicago, 1984), Magic in the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1989),Forbidden Rites (Sutton and Penn State, 1997), and Theology in Stone(Oxford, 2004). A theme underlying much of his research is the way in which communities create and sustain a sense of shared culture in the face of difference, dissention, and dispute."
http://www.religion.northwestern.edu/...

"In addition to the DAAD, his research has been supported by the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2006, he was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard...