A Preliminary Controlled Vocabulary for the Description of Hagiographic Texts

Abstract

As a genre defined by its content rather than by its form, the extreme diversity of the kinds of texts that can be considered “hagiographic” often proves an impediment to the progress of comparative hagiology. This essay offers some suggestions for the creation of a controlled vocabulary for the formal description of hagiographic texts, demonstrating how having a more highly developed shared language at our disposal will facilitate both the systematic analysis and the comparative discussion of hagiography.

Keywords

• comparative religions
• controlled vocabulary
• disciplinary innovation
• hagiography
• hagiology
• sacred biography
• sainthood
• religious studies