The Oneiro- and the Hagio-: Teaching about Dreams from the Standpoint of Comparative Hagiology

Teaching about significant dreams and exemplary figures (saints) in religious communities can be enriched by the comparative hagiology approach, which expands traditional hagiography. The author argues that this perspective reveals correspondences between how religious groups treat dreams and how they treat exemplars. The comparative hagiological classroom offers a productive learning environment that addresses challenges in contemporary post-secondary education for both instructors and students.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This paper explores the potentially fruitful interplay between a set of practical and theoretical approaches developed to teach post-secondary students about accounts of dreams and of exemplars, in cases where these phenomena have been deemed significant by specific religious discourse communities. Incorporating insights from his participation in the Comparative Hagiology group, the author suggests—in particular—that the expanded perspective on hagiography proposed by Rondolino, Hollander, and others can serve as a fruitful vantage from which to survey both of these phenomena in the classroom, revealing some intriguing correspondences between them. The author concludes by proposing some ways that the comparative hagiological classroom could be a particularly productive learning environment, and one that directly addresses some of the challenges of contemporary post-secondary education (from both the instructors’ and students’ perspectives).