Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Unit and Comparative Studies in Religion Unit

Saints in Divided Societies
Co-Sponsored by Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Unit and Comparative Studies in Religion Unit
In societies where interaction and understanding across diversities of wealth, ethnicity, religion, or political values give way to fear and blame between identity groups, such diversities can ossify into intractable divisions—often (though not always) manifesting as sectarian violence or the closing of physical borders. In such societies, religious phenomena are only ever part of the picture, yet their symbol-systems and invitations to identification and exclusion become particularly motivating in the dynamics of division. This panel focuses attention on how holy people, religious exemplars, or saints (these themselves being contested categories) are constructed and mobilized in divided societies, exploring the ways that saintly figures are understood and used so as to reinforce, undermine, or reconfigure the social divisions in whose interstices they are perceived to move. This panel will be by invitation, but if your work fits the theme and you would like to be considered for an invitation, please email Aaron Hollander (ahollander@geii.org).