Saints and Sainthood

TY - ENCYC

T1 - Saints and Sainthood

AU - Bandak, Andreas

PY - 2018/9/4

Y1 - 2018/9/4

N2 - Saints are central for personal devotion, as intercessors and mediators between humanity and God, and as models for emulation. Relationships with and images of saints and holy figures are by no means fixed, but have developed, mirrored and challenged different times and cultures. Sainthood is a precarious social process that entails both the saintly figure and an audience, and the process that establishes the claim to sainthood depends on mutual implications, negotiations, contestations and collaborations. For followers the saint—living or dead—inhabits a space where they are allowed identification with him or her even if they never aspire to become a saint themselves. In this sense sainthood is a matter of social relationships—relationships which are perennially in the making.

AB - Saints are central for personal devotion, as intercessors and mediators between humanity and God, and as models for emulation. Relationships with and images of saints and holy figures are by no means fixed, but have developed, mirrored and challenged different times and cultures. Sainthood is a precarious social process that entails both the saintly figure and an audience, and the process that establishes the claim to sainthood depends on mutual implications, negotiations, contestations and collaborations. For followers the saint—living or dead—inhabits a space where they are allowed identification with him or her even if they never aspire to become a saint themselves. In this sense sainthood is a matter of social relationships—relationships which are perennially in the making.

U2 - 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1469

DO - 10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1469

M3 - Encyclopedia chapter

BT - International Encyclopedia of Anthropology

A2 - Callan, Hilary

PB - Wiley-Blackwell

ER -