Timothy S. Dobe is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Grinnell College. His research focuses on South Asian religions, especially Hinduism and Christianity, asceticism, sainthood, comparison, colonialism, and performance.

"The tools -- theoretical, linguistic, and cultural -- Dobe employs in making his case are truly remarkable, and the copious endnotes by themselvesmay be worth the price of the book. It is a work of profound ascesis, both in the writing and in the reading." -- Reid B. Locklin, Journal of Religion

"Hindu Christian Faqir is a much-welcome addition to the scholarship on modern Hinduism and Christianity, as well as, more broadly, on transnational religion in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries It spans continents and disciplines and opens the history of modern Hinduism to multiple scholarly audiences, including scholars working not only in religious studies and South Asian studies, but also in ethnic studies, diaspora and transnational studies, and global cultural history. This is a book that builds bridges-between the ascetic bodies of Hindu history and the raced and gendered bodies of empire, between the global cultural flows of 'Guru English' and the shifting semantics of religion in modern Punjab. I hope that it gets the broad readership that it deserves."--J. Barton Scott, History of Religions

"Interrogating the construction of sainthood in colonial India and the modern West, Dobe highlights the creative agency of two Indian holy men--one Hindu, one Christian. He demonstrates that sainthood is less about miracles and heavenly charisma than about specific kinds of performance grounded in local contexts and shared vernacular traditions. In the embodied comparative projects of these two 'upstart saints,' Dobe finds clues for rethinking colonial religion. Unsettling in the best way possible!" --Brian A. Hatcher, author of Bourgeois Hinduism

"Timothy S. Dobe's innovative approach successfully incorporates bodily practice, ascetic performance, and a detailed understanding of context into his comparative textual study. By highlighting the multiple functions of sainthood in religious and social contexts and across religious traditions, Hindu Christian Faqir contributes to a broader approach to comparative study and a more nuanced understanding of colonial religion."--Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies