The Saint's Life and the Senses of Scripture
Hagiography As Exegesis
Format:Paperback
Publisher:University of Notre Dame Press
Publishing:15th Aug '26
£38.00
This title is due to be published on 15th August, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£31.00(9780268038847)
Through close examination of ancient, medieval, and modern Lives of the saints, Ann W. Astell demonstrates how the historical transformation of hagiography as a genre correlates with similar changes in biblical studies.
Christian hagiography flourished from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries, illuminating the gospel through the overlapping forms of exempla and vita. Originally, the Lives of the saints were understood as hermeneutical extensions of the Bible—God authors the saint, just as God authors the divinely inspired scriptures. During the medieval period, a sense of dual authorship between God and the cooperating saint developed, paralleling the Scholastic impulse to assign greater agency to the human writers of scripture. Then, in the sixteenth century, powerful new anxieties about historical truth pushed hagiography aside for biography, its successor.
Drawing on her expertise in the history of Christianity and biblical exegesis, Astell convincingly shows how this radical shift in hagiography's status—the loss of the literal, allegorical, tropological, and anagogical senses of the Lives—serves as a bellwether for modern biblical reception.
"Astell seeks to frame hagiography as a form of biblical exegesis, shifting debate about the genre into new territory. In this reviewer's estimation, the shift will be enriching for both hagiography's detractors and its defenders." —First Things
"Astell's book further emphasises the importance of analysing hagiography for more than just the 'historical sense' and demonstrates the potential rewards for scholars from a range of disciplines of taking the Scriptural dimension of saints' Lives seriously." —Irish Theological Quarterly
"Though Astell's focus is hagiography, her aspirations extend to biblical interpretation. She 'hope[s] that a renewed biblical scholarship, combining historical-critical methods with an exegetical theology conscious of a long, living history of biblical reception, will find its partner in a renewed hagiography.' This wide-ranging and well-documented work provides valuable resources in support of achieving that goal." —Theological Studies
"Astell reads skillfully, writes lucidly, and is on top of her material." —Barbara Newman, author of The Permeable Self
"An original contribution to the field of medieval studies, in particular, but also religious history." —Ian Christopher Levy, author of Introducing Medieval Biblical Interpretation
ISBN: 9780268208127
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
400 pages