Theology as the word of God and as a word about God intertwines with the creative presence of God in the world and in history, and primarily with the loving and salvific calling to holiness that He addresses to man.
Consequently, hagiology as a discourse on holiness and as a discourse of the saints concerns, reveals, and comments on the response of the believing community and each of its members individually to this divine calling.
It is, in other words, the exploration and description of the conscious, dramatic, sometimes bloody, and sometimes immersed in a transcendent light, endeavor of man to develop a living relationship with the living God of the Judeo-Christian tradition; or, in the words of Seraphim of Sarov, to accomplish the unique and true purpose of Christian life: the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.
[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]
