This course examines saints, holiness, and altruism as seen through the interdisciplinary lenses of Christian church history, comparative religion, philosophy, theology, and biography. Students will gain a greater knowledge of how religious and moral exemplars function in their respective communities of faith as figures of both veneration and imitation, how various theories of altruism both build upon and wrestle with the existence of such exemplars, and how secular sainthood has emerged as a vital concept in contemporary ethics. The implications of saints for belief in divine reality will be considered along with the meaning and challenge of sainthood for today.