Showing posts with label Buddhism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Buddhism. Show all posts

Apr 4, 2012

Wordology

Hagiography  is the study of saints and refers literally to writings on the subject of such holy people, and specifically to the biographies of saints and ecclesiastical leaders.

Christian hagiographies focus on the lives, and notably the miracles of men and women canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Church, and the Church of the East. Other religions such as Buddhism and Islam also create and maintain hagiographical texts concerning saints and other individuals believed to be imbued with the sacred.

The term "hagiographic" has also been used as a pejorative reference to the works of biographers and historians perceived to be uncritical or reverential to their subject. Almost all my books begin with an unpejoritive autohagiography.