Review by Choice Review
In this study of hagiographies and other works by 13th-century writer and monk Thomas de Cantimpré, Smith (Villanova Univ.) provides theoretical readings and contextualizations of Thomas's vitae of extraordinary women (and one man) and of an allegorical treatise on preaching and religious life. Of particular interest are the connections drawn between (gendered) body and (gendered) text and the ineffability of the life of "excessive" saints like Christina the Astonishing. Throughout, Smith investigates theories about the language that underlies the rhetoric of Dominican writing on lay people who demonstrated and enacted sainthood in a time when spreading lay religiosity and female spirituality offered opportunity as well as potential heresy. The author pays close attention to the reader of these imaginative theological accounts, which enact the imitation of Christ and thereby prompt such imagination: hagiographical signs potentially allow the reader to participate in a type of communion. According to Smith, Thomas de Cantimpré was always aware that signification breaks down when saintly figuration is stretched, as in the case of Christina, and no ultimate, unequivocal signification is possible. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. --Michel Aaij, Auburn University at Montgomery
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
