Introduction: New Theoretical and Methodological Perspectives on Sanctity

the papers of the present number of Ocula show how the criteria associated to religious excellence are subject to innovations due to the relation between cultures and to social change: for example, depending on the period, they can include or exclude animals, they can be addressed to every human being or to specialised groups of people. These criteria are not necessarily codified as a set of explicit, emendable rules; in different Catholic semiospheres they take the form of exemplary models, forms of life which are manifested by practices and daily behaviours. In this frame, innovative cults use those traditional figurative codes representing sanctity to “sacralise” new values, leaving unresolved the tension between secular and spiritual worldview