Table Of ContentThe Biographical Process
1212
Religion and Reason 11
Method and Theory
in the Study and Interpretation of Religion
GENERAL EDITOR
Jacques Waardenburg, University of Utrecht
BOARD OF ADVISERS
Th. P. van Baaren, Groningen
R. N. Bellah, Berkeley
E. Benz, Marburg
U. Bianchi, Rome
H. J. W. Drijvers, Groningen
W. Dupr6, Nijmegen
S. N. Eisenstadt, Jerusalem
M. Eliade, Chicago
C. Geertz, Princeton
K. Goldammer, Marburg
P. Ricoeur, Paris
M. Rodinson, Paris
N. Smart, Lancaster
G. Widengren, Stockholm
MOUTON · THE HAGUE . PARIS
The Biographical Process
Studies in the History and Psychology of Religion
Edited by
FRANK E. REYNOLDS and DONALD CAPPS
MOUTON · THE HAGUE . PARIS
ISBN: 90-279-7522-1
© 1976, Mouton & Co
Jacket design by Jurriaan Schrofer
Printed in Hungary
Preface
In the spring of 1971 the process which has culminated in the present
collection of essays began in the coffee shop at the Divinity School of the
University of Chicago. The two editors became engaged in a conversation
which soon turned to the courses they were planning for the following year.
In discussing Reynolds' course on 'Sacred Biography' in the History of
Religions field and Capps' course on 'Psychohistorical Approaches to the
Study of Religious Leaders' in the field of Religion and Psychological Stud-
ies, it became clear that while the two projected offerings had quite different
foci, there were several areas of common interest. It was soon decided that
a juxtaposition of the approaches represented by the two courses might be
a fruitful undertaking, and that the courses should be replaced by a joint
seminar wherein the areas of overlap and common interest could be explored.
As the planning for the seminar proceeded we learned that several of our
colleagues in the Divinity School and in other areas of the University were
working on biographically oriented projects, using materials and methods
having much in common with our own. Consequently the conception of the
seminar was revised and expanded, and these colleagues were invited to
contribute papers and to participate in the discussions. Their responses were
extremely positive and it was soon apparent that the seminar should be
expanded from a one-term to a two-term endeavor. The first of these semi-
nars was held in the spring of 1972, and the second in the winter of 1973.1
While these seminars were in progress we became increasingly aware that
the kinds of scholarly approaches to the study and practice of biography
being exemplified and refined in the seminar context were being pursued by
a number of scholars in other university settings. Given the extent and quali-
ty of related research both within the seminar and beyond, we decided that
the publication of a number of these research projects in a single collection
would be useful. The present volume is the fruition of that decision.2
Without the cooperation and good will of our contributors, this volume
would not have been possible. Our profound thanks goes to them. We were
vi Preface
also the beneficiaries of an excellent editorial assistant in Judith Van Herik.
In edited volumes of this nature, it is often the editorial assistant whose
attention to matters both large and small insures the coherence of the final
product. There is a fine line between editor and editorial assistant, and we
are aware that this line has been transgressed innumerable times in the
preparation of the manuscript. Ms. Van Herik merits special mention for
giving the volume shape commensurate with its substance. Mr. Gary Alexan-
der gave unstintingly of his time in completing the final typescript copy of
the manuscript, as did Ms. Regina Clifford who took responsibility for the
difficult task of proof-reading the text and for preparing the index of proper
names.
We are indebted to our colleague, Professor Mircea Eliade, for his helpful
critical reading of our introductory essay. It is the stronger for his patient and
thoughtful guidance. Joseph M. Kitagawa, Dean of the Divinity School,
University of Chicago, demonstrated his personal interest in the project both
by contributing an essay to the volume and by making available generous
monetary subsidies for editorial purposes. Finally, we are deeply thankful to
Professor Jacques Waardenburg, general editor of the Mouton Press 'Reli-
gion and Reason' series, for his eminently trustworthy counsel throughout the
conception and eventual accomplishment of our task. Our thanks, also, to
Walter Capps for informing Professor Waardenburg of our seminar in
biography. Needless to say, we and our contributors take appropriate re-
sponsibility for the contents of the volume.
Frank E. Reynolds
University of Chicago
Donald Capps
University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
NOTES
1. A number of scholars who were not able to contribute formal papers made presenta-
tions in the seminars and contributed their perspectives to the discussion. Among
these were Robert Grant (Eusebius' biography of Origen), Charles Long (W. Ε. B.
DuBois), Bernard McGinn (Joachim of Fiore), Alan Miller (Japanese holy men),
Fazlur Rahman (Ibn Taymiya), Jonathan Z. Smith (Appolonias of Tyana), Karl
Weintraub (development of biography in the West), Jay Wilcoxen (Jeremiah), Susanne
Preface VII
Η. Rudolph (the diary of Amar Singh), and John Woods (Shah Isma'il, of the Safavi
dynasty in Iran). We wish to express our thanks to all of these persons, and to the
many other students and faculty members who participated in the seminars as well.
2. Of the sixteen items in the collection, nine were presented in some form in the seminar
content. The remaining seven were contributed by scholars who did not participate
directly in the seminar sessions.
Contents
PREFACE BY THE EDITORS V
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I: ESSAYS IN SACRED BIOGRAPHY
1. The many lives of Buddha : A study of sacred biography and Thera-
väda tradition,
by Frank E. Reynolds, University of Chicago 37
2. Following the Beloved: Muhammad as model in the Sufi tradition,
by Earle Waugh, Cleveland State University 63
3. The^life of 6ankaräcärya,
by David N. Lorenzen, El Colegio de Mexico 87
4. Religious biography in India: The 'nectar of the acts' of Caitanya,
by Edward C. Dimock, Jr., University of Chicago 109
PART II: BIOGRAPHICAL TRADITIONS AND INDIVIDUAL LIVES
5. The story of Tukbaw: 'They listen as he orates',
by Renato Rosaldo, Stanford University 121
6. Religious paradigms and political action: 'The murder in the
cathedral' of Thomas Becket,
by Victor Turner, University of Chicago 153
7. Ralph Waldo Emerson: The birth of a seer,
by Richard A. Hutch, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale 187
χ Contents
8. Newman's illness in Sicily: The reformer as biographer,
by Donald Capps, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 201
PART III: INDIVIDUAL LIVES AND CULTURAL INNOVATION
9. Personal identity and cultural crisis: The case of Anagärika Dharma-
pala of Sri Lanka,
by Gananath Obeyesekere, University of California, San Diego 221
10. The Beecher family: Microcosm of a chapter in the evolution of reli-
gious sensibility in America,
by Robert Michaelsen, University of California, Santa Barbara 253
11. Psychohistory and communal patterns: John Humphrey Noyes and
the Oneida community,
by Dennis Klass, Webster College 273
12. The uses and limits of psychobiography as an approach to popular
culture: The case of 'The Western',
by Peter Homans, University of Chicago 297
PART IV: FROM INDIVIDUAL LIFE TO HAGIOGRAPHY
13. Kükai as master and savior,
by Joseph M. Kitagawa, University of Chicago 319
14. The death and 'lives' of the poet-monk Saigyö: The genesis of a
Buddhist sacred biography,
by William La Fleur, Princeton University 343
15. The loneliness of Matsuo Bashö,
by James H. Foard, Stanford University 363
16. Lincoln's martyrdom: A study of exemplary mythic patterns,
by Donald Capps, University of North Carolina at Charlotte 393
