Religious Biography: The Melding of History and Christianity

During my graduate studies at The Catholic University of America, I had the opportunity one day to speak with the fabled American Catholic Church historian, Monsignor John Tracy Ellis, who at the time resided at the nearby Jeanne Jugan Residence of the Little Sisters of the Poor on Harewood Road. While speaking to Monsignor Ellis, he asked, "Why did you come to see me? You want a dissertation topic, don't you?" I responded that I came to meet him since I had read many of his books and simply wanted to pay my respects, but if he was willing to offer suggestions for a dissertation topic I was certainly listening. I told him that I was interested in the life of Archbishop Edward Hanna of San Francisco, but he responded that a serious study of that nature would require a more seasoned historian due to some historical uncertainties concerning the last years of Hanna's life. He told me that biography in general, however, was a great topic.

Since that initial meeting with arguably the most prominent American Catholic historian of the twentieth century, I have made biographical studies the heart of my scholarly research. Assembling the facts of an individual's life, as understood within the historical context and environment in which the person lived has been for me an interesting way to study American Catholicism, and I hope to make a contribution to scholarship and promotion of Catholic life in the United States. This essay presents my understanding of this important genre of historical writing. After an initial review of some of the scholarly literature on how professional historians have understood biography and a review of the responsibilities of the historian, this essay will outline my personal scholarly journey and the role biography has played in it, both as a researcher and teacher.

Biography as History

While appreciated for its ability to chronicle the lives and relevant events of significant historical figures, unfortunately biography has not always been given the respect it rightly deserves. Indeed, the historian Robert Schneider once wrote:

For a long time, academic historians have been somewhat ambivalent about the genre of biography. While most certainly recognize it is a legitimate and venerable mode of historical discourse, many are skeptical of the capacity of biography to convey the kind of analytically sophisticated interpretation of the past that academics have long expected. ¹

Some, as the historian Bergen Evans has suggested, have gone so far as to rank biography "as an inferior type of history." It has been seen as inherently limited due to its concentration on the life of one individual and its use of a "belles-lettres tradition rather than a scientific or sociological one." ² For a long period of time, biography was seen as the historian's "unloved stepchild, occasionally but grudgingly let in the door, more often shut outside with the riff raft [sic]." ³ It is claimed as well that historians make poor biographers because they are ill-equipped by nature of the discipline to write about individuals. Carl Rollyson, a biographer but not a historian, has written: "If you ask a historian to write a biography you are likely to get history. Biography puts characters first while history favors events." ⁴

The past negative attitude toward biography and the historian's pursuit of the same has been transformed in the light of more recent scholarship. Indeed, David Nasaw, the Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Professor of American History at City University of New York, has suggested, "Despite internal and external critique and the profession's studied ambivalence, biography has been and continues to be a vital genre of historical writing." Indeed, the historian Robert Rotberg has described the essential nature of this historical genre: "Without biographies (and biographers) of all kinds, especially those that are sensitive and responsible, the historical enterprise would be far less informed, and far less complete." ⁵ Biography provides a "fearless presentation of the full truth." Indeed, as Evans has stated, "The whole interest of biography lies in its truthfulness, and the value of biography lies in its application...