Bortolini’s Bellah and Bellah’s Bortolini: A Reading of an Ethical Biography

Abstract

An ethical biography entails assessing four major elements, the narrated author, the narrating author, the text and the reader. In each instance of engagement, fidelity to the truth of the other is essential. It is at these interpretive moments that ethics becomes an issue in terms of interpretative awareness, faithfulness and the impact on the interpreters. Is it inevitable in an ethical biography that personal transformations will occur? Using theoretical work on the genre of biography by Frédéric Regard, the author illustrates Regard’s theories by applying Bortolini’s A Joyfully Serious Man (AJSM). To accomplish this, he takes a personal approach. Personal in how he gives evidence of Bortolini’s journey with the writing of AJSM. Personal, in how he appreciates Bortolini’s ability to write about Bellah’s life as grist for Bellah’s theoretical work. Personal in how his reading of the biography affected him. The author seeks to portray biography as a complex scholarly art that advances ideas and the human project itself.