Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Biographies : Research, Results, and Reading

252 Pages·2017·2.111 MB·English

by  Anders Jarlert

kvhaa konferenser 94

Spiritual and Ecclesiastical
Biographies
Research, Results, and Reading
Editor:
Anders Jarlert
Konferenser 94
kungl. vitterhets historie och
antikvitets akademien
Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Biographies. Research, Results, and Reading. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie
och Antikvitetsakademien (KVHAA), Konferenser 94. Stockholm 2017. 250 pp.
Abstract
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 bio-
graphical 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 Lithu-
ania, with some concentration on Sweden, is the result of the work of researchers active in the Com-
mission 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 narra-
tives, 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.
Keywords
Biographies, Ecclesiastical history, Ecclesiastical biography, clergy, Pietism, Deism, hymnography,
historiography
© 2017 The authors and KVHAA, Stockholm
ISBN 978-91-7402-448-7
ISSN 0348-1433
Publisher Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien
(KVHAA, The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities)
Box 5622, SE-114 86 Stockholm, Sweden
http://www.vitterhetsakad.se
Distribution eddy.se ab, Box 1310, SE-621 24 Visby, Sweden
http://vitterhetsakad.bokorder.se
Illustrations See captions
Cover image The only known copy of The Book of Margery Kempe (c. 1440),
now in the British Library, London. 
© The British Library Board MS 61823, f.1r.
Cover design Lars Paulsrud
Graphic design Bitte Granlund/Happy Book
Printed in Sweden by Elanders Sverige, Mölnlycke 2017
Contents
Anders Jarlert: Preface 7
Anders Cullhed: Spiritual Autobiographies: Augustine as a Case in Point 9
Carina Nynäs: The Biographical Images of St Birgitta: Some Reflections 13
Robert Swanson: Moulding Margery: The Life and Afterlives of Margery Kempe 24
Marie-Louise Rodén: Conversion as a Biographical Problem: The Infamous Case of
Queen Christina of Sweden 37
Tadhg Ó hAnnracháin: The Biography of Bishop Francis Kirwan: Pii antistitis icon,
sive de vita et morte Rmi. D. Francisci Kirovani Alladensis Episcopi 45
Urban Claesson: Olof Ekman (1639–1713) – An Ordinary Swedish Pastor
as a Pioneer for Pietism. Perspectives on Writing Ecclesiastical Biographies
in the Tension between Local and International Contexts 54
Yves Krumenacker: Protestant or Deist? Marie Huber’s Case 62
Eva Haettner Aurelius: Guilt and Identity. An Autobiographical Incentive
in Christian Tradition with Special Emphasis on the Female Moravian
Lebenslauf 76
Daniel Lindmark: Saami Exemplary Narratives, Transnational Print Culture,
and Religious Reading Experience by the Turn of the 18th Century 82
Oloph Bexell: The Clergy – The most Biographed Profession in Sweden.
On the Reference Books Herdaminne as a more than 200-year-old Field
of Research 97
Janice Holmes: The “Absence” of Family in 19-Century Irish Presbyterian
Clerical Biographies 105
Hartmut Lehmann: Different Lessons: Carl Hinrichs and Jochen Klepper
as Biographers of the Prussian King Frederick William I 121
Joel Halldorf: Storytelling and Evangelical Identities 128
Jean-Marc Ticchi: The Biography of a Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church:
G. Sinopoli di Giunta’s Book Il cardinale Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro 140
Per-Arne Bodin: From Biography to Hymnography. On the Canonization
of Patriarch Tikhon 148
Antón M. Pazos: Recent Biographies of 20th-Century Popes.
Some Comments 166
Jonas Jonson: Between Objectivity and Hagiography. To Write the Lives
of Gustaf Aulén and Nathan Söderblom 176
Regina Laukaitytė: The Holocaust Theme in the Memoirs and Biographies
of the Hierarchs of the Catholic Church of Lithuania 182
Aila Lauha: The Cold War and Ecclesiastical Biography in Finland 194
Christian Sorrel: Episcopal Biographies and Religious Historiography
of the French Contemporary Period 209
Rev. Enock Bongani Zulu: The Contributions of Bishop Dr Manas
Buthelezi as a Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Leader from 1969–2012 217
Anders Jarlert: Writing Existential Biographies as Ecclesiastical History 233
The Authors 241
Preface
This volume is the result of the conference Spiritual and Ecclesiastical Biographies –
Research, Results, and Reading, which took place on 11–12 June, 2015, at the Royal
Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities in Stockholm.
The conference was organized in cooperation with the international organisation
for Church history, CIHEC (Commission Internationale d’Histoire et d’Études du
Christianisme, www.cihec.org).
The aim of the conference was to offer Swedish and international researchers a pos-
sibility to present methodological aspects on biographical work in different genres as
well as from different angles and epochs. The aim was also to offer the researchers a
possibility to present their work to an international forum on an advanced level, more
than presenting the biographed persons as such. Research, writing, and critical reading
of biographies with relevance to Church history were the main targets.
The conference covered a wide spectrum of countries, epochs, and confessions. It
is my sincere hope that the volume will inspire to further work in the field of spiritual
and ecclesiastical biographies, which is of such a great importance in our contempo-
rary world, where religion sometimes is being treated entirely as something collective
and non-personal.
Anders Jarlert