Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Biographies : Research, Results, and Reading

Spanning from Augustine to present time - the articles in this volume present methodological aspects on biographical work in different genres and from different angles. The difficulties in biographical research and writing are discussed, as well as the results and contextual settings of old and new biographies, and the new, critical reading of biographies in our time.

The 22 articles on biographical material from Finland to South Africa, and from Ireland to Lithuania, with some concentration on Sweden, is the result of the work of researchers active in the Commission Internationale d'Histoire et d'Études du Christianisme (CIHEC), at the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, and other invited researchers, representing research areas such as general history, history of literature, and Slavic studies. The articles discuss biographies on medieval saints, 20th-century popes, a Russian patriarch, the Presbyterian clergy, Saami narratives, and the Holocaust theme. The common theme is the relevance of spiritual and ecclesiastical biographies to Church history in a wider sense, varying in time and confession.