Exemplary Life: Modelling Sainthood in Christian Syria

"Exemplary Life is indispensable reading for anthropologists of religion, political theorists engaged in debates about charismatic authority and enjoyment, and scholars focused on Christianity more specifically. Combining a deep knowledge of Syria with a keen appreciation of the uncanny and the miraculous, Bandak attends carefully both to the spiritual practices of the followers of Our Lady of Soufanieh and to their felt experiences of worldly precarity. In doing so, he offers important insights into the nature of evidence and its relation to belief, faith, and affective intensities."

Lisa Wedeen, Mary R. Morton Professor of Political Science and the College, University of Chicago

"This is a rich and rewarding book. Exemplary Life brims with sensitivity and insight, as Andreas Bandak relates the lifeworlds and concerns of Syrian Christians to some of the most significant theoretical and conceptual issues undergirding the human sciences. With and through Our Lady of Soufanieh – the saintly exemplar in question – we come away with new understandings of sainthood, politics, and the conceptual frames of our social worlds."

Matthew Engelke, Professor of Religion, Columbia University

"Bandak takes us on a vivid ethnographic journey into the everyday world of a holy woman and her followers as they pray, seek blessings, and tend to a holy icon during a precarious period in the history of Damascus. At the same time, he provides a sustained anthropological and philosophical reflection on what exemplification means – for scholars as much as for believers. This is a moving and inspiring book."

Simon Coleman, Chancellor Jackman Professor of Religion, University of Toronto