Hagiography and Religious Truth: Case Studies in the Abrahamic and Dharmic Traditions
Ebook
The hagiographic materials from the world's religions can tell us much about the beliefs and practices of the people, yet the limited degree to which hagiography has been used as an instrument for understanding diverse religious traditions is surprising. Hagiography and Religious Truth provides a clearer understanding of the ways hagiography functions to disclose truth for practitioners and suggests various ways that these underexploited sources enrich our comprehension of broader issues in religious studies.
This volume provides a much-needed cross-cultural and interreligious comparison of saints' lives, iconography, and devotional practices. The contributors show that hagiographic sources can in fact be “truths of manifestation,” which function as vehicles for prefiguring, configuring, and refiguring religious, social, and cultural life. The editors argue that some meanings simply cannot be communicated effectively through historical-critical methodologies. By exploring how hagiography functions throughout several of the world's religious traditions, this volume illustrates how various modes of hagiography articulate religious ideas and uniquely represent conceptions of sanctity.
An exploration by scholars of Abrahamic and Dharmic traditions of how hagiographic materials - saints' lives, images of saints, and ritual devotions surrounding the saint - act as vehicles for articulating and replicating religious, social, and cultural ideals.
Provides an innovative methodological approach to the use of saints' lives and iconography
Explores several traditions and cultures comparatively, demonstrating the use of new methodological approach
Traditions examined are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism
Figures
Contributors
Foreword: Jeffrey J. Kripal
Acknowledgements
Introduction:
Rico G. Monge, Kerry P.C. San Chirico, and Rachel J. Smith
Part One: Theoretical Considerations
1. Saints, Truth, and the “Use and Abuse” of Hagiography, Rico G. Monge
2. Devotion, Critique, and the Reading of Christian Saints' Lives, Rachel J. Smith
3. Sacred Narrative and Truth: What Does It Mean If It Did Not Happen?, Peter C. Bouteneff
and Patricia Fann Bouteneff
Part Two: Case Studies in Dharmic Traditions
4. Imagining Hagiographies in Chhattisgarh, Ramdas Lamb
5. Turning Tomb to Temple: Hagiography, Sacred Space, and Ritual Activity in a Thirteenth-
Century Hindu Shrine, Mark J. McLaughlin
6. From Legend to Flesh and Bone: The Reenactment of a Tantric Narrative, Joel S. Gruber
Part Three: Case Studies in Abrahamic Traditions
7. The Transmission of Virtue in the Hagiography of Haci Bektas Veli: The Narrative of
Güvenç Abdal, Vernon J. Schubel
8. A Global Intercessor: Triumphalism and Reconciliation in the Services of St. John
Maximovich, Nicholas Denysenko
9. “King-slaves” in South Africa: Shrines, Ritual, & Resistance, Bahar Davary
10. Many Truths, One Story: John of Ephesus's “Lives of the Eastern Saints”, Todd French
Part Four: Case Studies in Comparison
11. Saints from the Margin: Rescuing Tradition through Hagiography in the Lives of
Sylouan the Athonite and Milarepa, Thomas Cattoi
12. Holy Negotiations in the Hindu Heartland: Abundant People and Places among the
Khrist Bhaktas of Banaras, Kerry P. C. San Chirico
Afterword: Comparative Theological Reflections, Francis X. Clooney
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
A rich collection of essays that advances work on the topic of hagiography. Many of the essays indicate new ways of understanding a fascinating subject. The essays are very suggestive of new directions for hagiographical studies, and indicate new connections for the subject…these essays will advance the understanding of hagiography and should encourage other scholars to grasp this subject more seriously in the future.
This is a deeply engaging book that highlights the importance of stories of holy people and the way these stories enliven religious communities. Hagiography and the idea of the saint, which are so central to living religious traditions, have been somewhat neglected in scholarship and this very fine book takes these themes seriously as a focus for discussing questions of truth and how these traditions speak to us today. Everyone interested in comparative theology or comparative religion should read this book.
Embracing a notion of truth as manifestation - truth in so far as it reveals what could be - this volume attempts to create a space in which religionists, historians, and comparative theologians can engage productively with narratives of saints' lives. In doing so, it offers invaluable assistance to scholars interested in a deeper understanding of the role that saints' lives have played within and across religious traditions.
- Title: Hagiography and Religious Truth: Case Studies in the Abrahamic and Dharmic Traditions
- Authors: Rico G. Monge, Kerry P. C. San Chirico, Rachel J. Smith
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
- Print Publication Date: 2016
- Logos Release Date: 2024
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781474235792, 9781350065284, 1350065285, 1474235794
- Resource ID: LLS:9781474235792
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-04-11T02:28:04Z
Rico G. Monge is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, University of San Diego, USA.
Kerry P. C. San Chirico is Assistant Professor of Interfaith and Interreligious Studies, Villanova University, USA.
Rachel Smith is Assistant Professor of Theology and Religious Studies, Villanova University, USA.