Dialogue and Destabilization: An Index for Comparative Global Exemplarity

Abstract

This reflection derives from a discussion that took place at the 2018 “Comparative Hagiology” pre-conference workshop of the American Academy of Religion. The goal during that meeting was to articulate points of dialogue for the comparison of exemplary figures in various historic, geographic, and faith traditions. Here, I offer an open-ended descriptive index as a heuristic device for beginning a comparative study, whether collaborative or single-authored. After positioning my inquiry from within my own field of study, medieval European Christianity, I offer a brief “test case” for the portability of the index by using its terms to think through a text that is widely-regarded within my subfield as deeply complicated and difficult to interpret, the Life of Christina Mirabilis. I conclude by re-describing some of the terms of the index and by inviting further re-description.

A Preliminary Controlled Vocabulary for the Description of Hagiographic Texts

“…My goal here is to demonstrate the utility of a clear and durable taxonomic vocabulary for describing the formal features of hagiographic texts, the collaborative development of which-drawing on the expertise of scholars working on the full gamut of hagiographic texts-may be a possible future direction for this project. Sara Ritchey's piece in this same volume displays an intent comparable to my own (Ritchey 2019). While I am here limiting myself to addressing formal aspects of hagiographic texts (I make a motion towards addressing the perhaps more fraught question of the content of these texts toward the end of this essay), the terms of Sara's index direct our attention to a series of important themes that cut across all the different layers in which all hagiographic production is embedded-touching upon formal qualities of a hagiographic text, but also its contents, its reception, its importance religiously, socially, and historically.…”

Reduction without Reductionism

“…This discussion is also remarkably relevant to scholars of religion for whom methodological considerations of the concept of exemplarity is extensive (e.g. Sutcliffe 2016;Kidd 2017;Ritchey 2019).…”

Comparative Methods for Teaching Contemporary and Ancient Saints

“…The historical ties to Western Christianity render its ability to encompass the wide range of exemplary religious individuals in our world awkward at best. This issue has been carefully and fruitfully explored by a range of leading scholars in Hagiology (Hollander 2020;Rondolino 2017;Keune 2019;DiValerio 2019;Brown 1983;Hawley 1987;Rondolino 2019;Ritchey 2019). Even so, we have chosen to use the term in this paper as a signifier because it connects with a predominant culture in our context.…”