Category: Publications

Article by Håkan Bengtsson in Svensk Teologisk Kvartalskrift.

This article discusses the establishment of the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem in 1951. My claim is that the missionary plan of the Swedish Mission to the Jews was mitigated towards a programme of biblical studies. Several factors contributed to this transformation. The change facilitated the relations with the Israeli authorities. Another challenge was to overcome the common Christian negative comprehension of Zionism as a mere materialistic, political enterprise. Such attitudes complicated a connection to political Zionism, however the Swedish Theological Institute related rather to the cultural Zionist agenda of promoting Jewish culture and the Bible and could later connect to the topic of the Bible and the land. The experiences of the Swedish Mission in Vienna during the Second World War and their anti-Nazi stance also en­abled the founding of the institute. Two former missionaries, Greta Andrén and Hans Kosmala, were appointed as heads of the institute. Andrén had previously experienced that missionary work in Jerusalem was considered as utterly suspicious. Thereto both the Anglican and the Swedish missionaries had under ambivalent presuppositions supported an evacuation of baptized Jews, so-called “Hebrew Christians”, from Palestine to England in April and May 1948. This enterprise, named “Operation Mercy”, was later proved to be primarily an excuse for these Hebrew Christians to leave the country. The links to any overt mission­ary work was thus disengaged when negotiating permits for the Swedish Theological Institute. Instead, a qualified study programme in the Bible, the land, and Judaism was initiated; concepts that reflected esteemed values of the new Israeli state.

Doctoral thesis by Sabina Koij at Åbo Akademi.

The aim of this doctoral thesis is to confront the problem of how Christian faith, constantly expressed and fashioned in new ways, can be said to be the same faith. This problem is formulated in a central question: If Christian faith constantly takes on a variety of new expressions, how can the theology of the Christian faith appear to have continuity? 

The thesis begins by observing the discontinuity of the Christian tradition over a period of 500 years in Storkyrkan, the Cathedral of Stockholm. Starting in the 1980´s and journeying backwards towards the beginning of the reformation, a series of tableaus are outlined which reveal how Christian faith has continuously been manifested in new forms and content. Against this background of discontinuity, I want to suggest how a resilient contemporary theology for the Church of Sweden might appear. 

The question of how Christian faith and it´s continual variety of expressions can be combined simultaneously with continuity is treated as a problem of tradition. This problem of tradition is confronted by referencing the American Catholic theologian David Tracy and his understanding of tradition from a critical hermeneutical point of view. Tracy´s understanding of tradition is compared to the function of the so-called dynamic system and the concept of resilience. Resilience concerns the sustainability of dynamic systems and their ability to accommodate change without losing their basic function and thereby collapsing. 

A central thought enclosed within the theories concerning the concepts of resilience and the dynamic system is the acceptance of complexity, innovation and a readiness for surprise. According to Tracy, the concepts of resilience and the dynamic system are used as tools of analysis in order to shed light upon that which needs to be strengthened regarding a tradition´s ability to endure change without collapsing. The strengthening is accomplished by three moldable criteria presented by a number of Lutheran theologians. These criteria are a biblical criterion, a criterion of reason, logic and personal experience and an ethical criterion. These three criteria reinforce David Tracy´s understanding of the Christian tradition in relation to the concept of resilience, including the acceptance of complexity, innovation and readiness for surprise. The purpose of these criteria is to contribute to the discussion within the Church of Sweden concerning the resilient and sustainable Christian tradition. A suggestion then follows as to how resilient contemporary theology could be formulated, a theology that hopefully will be beneficial in understanding how one and the same faith can absorb a variety of continual new expressions and, as a dynamic system, function according to its intentional purpose. The thesis begins in the Cathedral of Stockholm and concludes in this same room with speculations concerning the future of Christian faith and its ability to meet and absorb a continual flow of new expressions in an ever changing world.

Det övergripande syftet med denna studie, Resiliensteologi. En studie av den kristna traditionens hållbara förändring, är att mot bakgrund av den diskontinuitet som kan observeras i Storkyrkans historia undersöka de teologiska villkoren för kristen traditionsförmedling samt presentera ett förslag till hur en resilient samtidsteologi för Svenska kyrkan skulle kunna se ut. Undersökningen tar avstamp i iakttagelsen att den kristna tron över tid förkunnats och gestaltats på ständigt nya sätt. Därmed reses frågor om vad som kan sägas vara kontinuerligt i tron, om den nu samtidigt hela tiden förändras. 

Avhandlingen inleds med ett Baklängespreludium, vars syfte är att visa hur gestaltningen av den kristna tron har skiftat över tid i ett och samma rum. Det handlar om ett antal historiska tablåer från Storkyrkans historia med början i 1980-talet tillbaka till 1500-talet som synliggör en problematik som sedan formuleras i studiens huvudfråga om hur man kan förstå och tala om den kristna trons kontinuitet och samtidiga diskontinuitet. För att göra frågan om den kristna trons samtidiga förändring och kontinuitet mer hanterlig bearbetas den i termer av en traditionsproblematik. Genom att knyta an till olika teoretiker resoneras kring begreppet tradition i allmänhet och därefter med hjälp av hermeneutisk filosofi. Utifrån den kritisk-hermeneutiska teologen David Tracy och hans traditionsförståelse fördjupas sedan diskussionen genom att fokusera på specifikt den kristna traditionens förändring och kontinuitet. Tracys traditionsförståelse relateras därefter till funktionen hos det dynamiska systemet, såsom det definieras inom social-ekologin, och det tillhörande begreppet resiliens, som handlar om ett systems förmåga att härbärgera förändring utan att det förlorar sin grundläggande funktion och kollapsar. Genom att jämföra Tracys traditionsförståelse med idéer om ett social-ekologiskt dynamiskt system i rörelse, och låta resiliensbegreppet hjälpa till att ställa frågan om vad som kan sägas vara en hållbar kristen tradition, introduceras begrepp från det social-ekologiska fältet i den kritiska hermeneutiken inom den systematiska teologin, för att därigenom bidra till en teologisk analys. Detta görs med särskilt fokus på tre aspekter – komplexitet, innovation och beredskap – som alla utgör förutsättningar för systemresiliens. Dessa tre aspekter hos resiliensbegreppet ställs sedan i relation till David Tracys kritiskt hermeneutiska traditionsförståelse med utgångspunkt från frågan om vad som kan förstärkas hos Tracy för att man bättre ska förstå traditionens hållbara förändring. 

Med hjälp av en rad lutherska systematiska teologer resoneras kring hur en sådan förstärkning skulle kunna se ut genom att presentera ett antal formbara kriterier för en hållbar tradition. Det handlar om ett bibliskt kriterium, ett förnufts-logiskt och personligt erfarenhetskriterium samt ett etiskt kriterium. Dessa förändringskriterier syftar till att öka förståelsen för den kristna traditionens hållbara förändring förstådd som ett resilient dynamiskt system som klarar av att fungera på det sätt systemet är tänkt att fungera. Insikterna från mötet mellan Tracys traditionsförståelse och resilienstänkandet, tillsammans med de formbara kriterierna, tas sedan med in i återvändandet till studiens huvudfråga om hur trons kontinuitet och samtidigt skiftande uttryck kan förstås. I slutet presenteras så ett konstruktivt förslag till hur en resilient samtidsteologi för Svenska kyrkan skulle kunna se ut, en teologi som jag hoppas kan bidra till förståelsen för och hur kyrkan idag kan tala kring trons ständiga förändring och på samma gång kontinuitet. Allra sist tas vi tillbaka till det kyrkorum vi befann oss i inledningsvis, för att i ett Framlängespreludium – som fungerar som pendang till Baklängespreludiet – för att med blicken framåt spekulera kring kyrkans framtida situation. 

Anthology on Lit Verlag edited by Espen Dahl, Jan-Olav Henriksen, Marius T. Mjaaland.

Religion would be impossible without imagination. Imagination provides content that otherwise escapes discourse and perception. Thus, it opens up a productive realm for creative involvement that keeps religion from sinking into trivialities or abstractions. The contributions in the present volume explore in various ways potentialities and problems linked to imagination’s role in the context of religion. The book challenges readers to think again and think differently about imagination in religion – which, in itself, involves the power of imagination. The book opens up fresh perspectives on the interactive dynamics between imagination and various faculties or dimensions of life. Imagination might be involved in thinking, perceiving, contemplation, and in practices. 

Article by Svend Andersen in Dansk teologisk tidsskrift.

Abstract: The article offers a contribution to the understanding of K.E. Løgstrup’s metaphysics focusing on his reading of Friedrich Hölderlin’s poetry and Martin Heidegger’s interpretation thereof. Heideggerian ontology plays a crucial role in Løgstrup’s theology as a philosophical explication of the pre-understanding of Christian faith. At first, existential ontology was essential in this respect, but later Løgstrup realized the necessity of broadening the view to being in general, which equals the movement towards metaphysics. In this movement, Hölderlin as interpreted by Heidegger is pivotal, an important element being the “poetic openness” Løgstrup introduces in The Ethical Demand. In unpublished manuscripts, Løgstrup claims that poetic openness in Hölderlin has an ontological and metaphysical content, and his reading thereby anticipates central themes in his later metaphysics such as omnipresence, particularity, and the history-nature relation.

Article by Patrik Fridlund in Förnuft och religion : filosofiska undersökningar (Artos, 2021), edited by Mikael Stenmark, Karin Johannesson, Ulf Zackariasson.

Anthology abstract:

Människor har under alla tider funderat över livet, kärleken, lidandet, Gud, varifrån vi kommer och vad som kommer att hända när vi dör. Religionsfilosofins syfte är både att förstå och kritiskt och konstruktivt granska människors föreställningar om, svar på och förhållningssätt till dessa tillvarons grundläggande frågor. Vad menar exempelvis människor när de säger att Gud finns eller att naturen är allt som finns, att livet är meningsfullt eller att det är absurt, att vi har en fri vilja eller att våra handlingar är förutbestämda och att det finns en objektiv moral eller att gott och ont egentligen inte existerar? Och finns det några goda skäl att tro att verkligheten är så beskaffad? Denna bok ger en introduktion till det filosofiska utforskandet av de olika religiösa och sekulära livsåskådningar som vuxit fram ur brottningen med dessa människolivets stora frågor till exempel kristendom, islam, scientism och sekulär humanism. 

Article by Francis Jonbäck in Studia Theologica.

Philosophers of religion have traditionally focused their attention on belief in God and assessed such belief in terms of it having some epistemic status like “rationality” or “probability”, or indeed by determining whether or not it constitutes knowledge. In this paper, I focus my attention on the non-doxastic attitude of hope and formulate reasons for whether or not we should hope for God. In light of these reasons, I formulate hopeism as a research programme according to which we should develop concepts of God by starting with the question of what type of being would be worthy of our utmost hope. I compare this view with belief-based concepts of God, such as perfect being theism and what I call worship-worthiness theism. Arguably, the greatest benefit of choosing hopeism is that it is inclusive. Most atheists as well as agnostics and theists can endorse the view. I also suggest a number of directions in which hopeism can be developed.

Article by Elizabeth Li in Studia Theologica.

This paper brings to light the overlooked existential commitments of the Danish speculative theologian Hans Lassen Martensen. Primarily known and studied today for being the arch-rival of Søren Kierkegaard, Martensen continues to suffer under his Kierkegaardian caricature as a courtesan to Hegelian speculative thought and to Christendom’s cultural religiosity. In contrast to this portrayal, this paper argues that Martensen’s thought can be viewed as part of a wider existentialist movement developing in nineteenth-century Danish philosophy in response to the dry abstractions of rationalism. It is shown that Martensen’s theological and ethical positions spring from a deep-seated concern with questions of existence, which find expression in three distinct but related moments of Martensen’s theological authorship: Firstly, in his definition of religion as an existential relation, secondly in his view that dogmatic theology should be understood as existential knowledge, and finally by understanding his theological ethics as existential striving.

Article by Amy-Jill Levine in Studia Theologica.

Christian preaching and teaching often presents Jews and Judaism as legalistic, obsessed with ritual purity, elitist, money-loving, militaristic, misogynist, and xenophobic. In much popular Christian imagination, Jesus emerges as the only Jew who proclaims the spirit over the letter of the Law, who finds the heart of Torah in compassion rather than in ritual, who demonstrates solidarity with the poor, who counsels peace, who shows respect for women, and who proclaims that God loves all people and not just Jews. Such caricatures of both Jesus and his context are not simply the purview of neo-Nazis and their ilk; they appear in the sermons and teachings of well-motivated Christians who would be appalled to think of themselves as purveying tropes that can inculcate or reinforce Jew-hatred. The problem with such bigoted views can often be traced to biblical passages: Matthew’s invectives against scribes and Pharisees, John’s “Jews” who are children of the devil, Paul’s reference to the Jews “who killed the Lord Jesus,” the “synagogue of Satan” in Revelation, etc. This paper briefly notes ongoing Jew-hatred, explains why Christian teachers and clergy are ill-equipped to address it, details why major approaches to problematic texts are not, and cannot be, fully successful, and then suggests ways for Christian preaching and teaching to move forward in preventing anti-Jewish messages.

Article by Filip Rasmussen in Studia Theologica.

In recent years, many theologians, philosophers, and anthropologists have turned to the simultaneously intriguing and problematic question of the possibility of “the gift”. This article compares the way the latter figures and is developed for constructive purposes in the theology of Kathryn Tanner and John Milbank. After having explained the background of the current resurgence of gift-language in the work of Marcel Mauss and Jacques Derrida, the article examines how Tanner and Milbank answer the concerns of the latter and highlight their very different emphases on unilateralism and reciprocity, respectively. As an answer to a question posed by Sarah Coakley, I argue that the differences between Milbank and Tanner, between “purified” gift exchange on the one hand and “unilateral” gift on the other, are more rhetorical than substantial. Nevertheless, I also argue that there is a tension between unilateralism and reciprocity in Tanner’s theology which comes down to a problem of relationality. I argue that Milbank solves this problem in a better way, and that Tanner’s account might be adjusted by bringing themes of reciprocity, although implicitly present, more clearly to the surface, and by nuancing her notions of “pure” and “completely unilateral” gifts.

Article by Jayne Svenungsson in Studia Theologica

Full title: ‘Radical incarnation: The dangers and promises of Christian universalism in the wake of Badiou’s Saint Paul’

In his 1997 pamphlet Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism, Alain Badiou pointed to the cynical interaction between the burgeoning identitarian movements and neoliberal capitalism. As a bulwark against these tendencies, he proposed a creative reinterpretation of Christian universalism inspired by the Pauline letters. This article revisits Badiou’s argument in light of recent debates on the limits of identity politics. First, it gives a brief overview of Badiou’s innovative and thought-provoking reading of Paul, which gave significant impulses to the politico-philosophical debate in the subsequent years. Second, it discusses some of the lacunas of Badiou’s interpretation of Christian universalism. More specifically, it ponders whether these lacunas may help to explain why the radical left-wing universalism of the 2000s never really took off, but was instead replaced with radicalized identitarian movements on the political left as well as the political right. Finally, it argues that the Christian tradition of universalism nonetheless has significant insights to offer contemporary political philosophy. However, this will require that it learns from its past sins, notably its tendencies of legitimizing supersessionist patterns throughout history. The clue to such a “post-critical” Christian universalism, it is argued, lies in a radicalized emphasis on the incarnational nature of Christianity.