Holiness Compared: Critical Approaches to Sanctity in the Twenty-First Century

This volume examines holiness and ascriptions of holiness in diverse historical contexts to generate comparative insights into their dynamics within and across religious traditions. It gathers historical, sociological, and theological analyses by senior and emerging experts in Christian, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim studies. They explore varied forms that holiness takes within and between religious traditions, how it is recognized and contested, and how it shapes social relations in particular communities. Through comparative analysis and rich, contextualized studies of particular figures and practices deemed holy, this volume shows how holiness functions in similar and different ways. Collectively, the chapters illustrate the polyvalence of holiness within traditions and underscore how streams of spirituality and paths of holiness often conceptualized as separate (or even incompatible) are often, in practice, linked in the lives of holy figures and communities devoted to them. This book is especially valuable for scholars interested in saints and holy figures, comparative religion, and interreligious relations.