Category: Publications

Article by Knut Alfsvåg in Studia Theologica.

The axle around which Kierkegaard’s thought revolves is the difference between the infinite and the finite, and the commandment to love all humans indiscriminately is the manifestation of the infinite within the area of the finite. The realization of this commandment will not let inequality disappear; finitude can never be conceived as the realization of the infinite and undifferentiated. The goal of absolute human equality will therefore never be realized within the realm of the finite and political. However, one must keep an open space for it as the area from which the values of the political are calibrated and evaluated. If the goal is considered realizable, politics will be reduced to secularized versions of theocracy; if lost, politics will be reduced to entertainment. The task of the church in relation to the political is to maintain the significance of this principle.

Article by Svend Andersen in Studia Theologica.

Today, imagination is related to the classical concepts φρόνησις and ἐπιϵίκϵια, which both are about taking right action in particular situations. Some regard imagination as an essential requirement of the Golden Rule (GR). The role of imagination according to three thinkers is discussed here: Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, and K. E. Løgstrup. In Kant’s ethics, the basic problem is the agent’s relation to practical reason. The two others regard ethics as rooted in the agent’s relation to the other. With Kant, imagination (Einbildungskraft) hardly plays an ethical role, but does so via aesthetic judgment. The GR needs “improvement” through adjustment to the categorical imperative. Luther empha sizes ἐπιϵίκϵια: taking the right action in a particular situation, getting free from general rules. The same is true of acting in accordance with GR, which for Luther is a summary of natural law. Løgstrup’s ethics is a reconstruction of Luther’s theory of natural law, philosophically based on existential phenomenology. In The Ethical Demand, imagination is central for the ability to take care of the other. Later, Løgstrup states that GR underlines the importance of imagination and the ability to place oneself in the other’s position. The article concludes by sketching Løgstrup’s view of imagination in political ethics. 

Article by Knut Alfsvåg in Teologisk Tidsskrift.

According to the NT, the Father and the Son are one, but still the Father leaves the Son on the cross. What are the implications of considering this as the essence of divinity? In the Bible, humans are placed under the wrath of God because they have sinned against their neighbours. Jesus accepts this as the truth even of his own life, but is still carried through death to the resurrection. This could lead to a doctrine of apocatastasis, but the ambiguity in the image of God is retained through the idea of an eternal judgment with two different outcomes.

Ifølge NT er Faderen og Sønnen ett, samtidig som Faderen forlater Sønnen på korset. Hvordan blir vår gudsforståelse om vi antar at denne motsetningen uttrykker kjernen i Guds vesen? Ifølge Bibelen står mennesker under Guds vrede fordi de har gjort urett mot sitt medmenneske. Jesus identifiserer seg med denne plasseringen, men bæres likevel gjennom døden til oppstandelsen. Heller ikke under Guds vrede faller en ut av det frelsende gudsforhold. Dette betinger isolert sett en verdensrettferdiggjørelse, men tvetydigheten i gudsbildet fastholdes ved at frelse formidles i form av en utvelgelseslære som fastholder dommens to utganger.

PhD thesis by Hanne Puk Dahl at Aalborg University.

The Religious Roots of the Welfare State

Searching for the religious roots of the welfare state is the subject of this PhD dissertation.

The aim has been to conduct a comparative study of Denmark and Germany. The idea is to determine the influence of the reformation in the view of fighting poverty.

The analyses are based on three studies of microcosmic character. The studies are based on historical empiric material found describing the nature of institutions fighting poverty from the middle age until 18th. Century.

I have chosen three cities. They are Aalborg in Denmark and Lübeck and Passau in Germany. The cities all have a monastery of The Holy Ghost, which still is functioning. This has been a reason for choosing these cities as historic micro cosmos. The idea is to make a comparison based on almost similar institutions. Monasteries of The Holy Ghost are institutions founded by citizens who gave a large donation in order to help fight poverty. The institutions had various functions as hospitals, orphanages, elder homes and almshouses for poor people. The monasteries have been founded before the reformation. This gives a possibility to investigate which changes the reformation led to in everyday life for poor people.

The comparison will also cover the general outline of the way poverty has been addressed in the three cities.

For Germany, the timespan is from the foundation of the monasteries until 1803/06. 1803 is the year of secularization, which in Germany means that all property of the church is taken over by the state in order to pay reparations to France after having lost the Napoleon Wars. 1806 is the year where “Code Napoleon” is implemented in Germany as the new way of legislating.

The year of secularization is the year of major changes in Passau, since Passau is not affected by the reformation. It stays catholic and so does its social institutions.

For Lübeck 1531 is the year of major changes. This is the year where it adapts a new constitution for the city because of the reformation.

Of Aalborg, the important year of change is 1537/39 where the Lutheran constitution for the church is adapted. For Aalborg, the timespan for the historic microstudy continues until 1708 where a nationwide legislation considering how to deal with poor people is passed. The law from 1708 ordains the first assessment tax on income with the purpose of paying for the need of poor people. I have studied the tax lists from Aalborg as a primary source of information, which has never been investigated before.

https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/429773423/PHD_HPD_E_pdf.pdf

Article by Patrik Hagman in Studia Theologica.

This article explores the way Rowan Williams understands saints as theo-politically significant. By surveying a number of key texts by Williams in different genres, the author argues that the saints for Williams are highly important for his political theology. For him, the saints make a political theology possible, since they witness to the world as rooted in Gods will. This, in turn, is significant for understanding how theological language works, since it goes beyond the limits of “realistic” discourse, bound by a certain secular understanding of the way the world “is”. The significance of this feature of theological language is demonstrated by discussing texts by Martin Hägglund and Theo Hobson.

Article by Torbjørn Kalberg in Kirke og kultur.

I vestleg idéhistorie har ein ikkje brydd seg stort om å drøfte islamsk påverknad på kristen europeisk kulturutvikling. Islam hadde nok ein viss påverknad når det galdt arkitektur og språk, og kan hende når det galdt formidling av gresk filosofi, arabarane hadde jo tilgang til dei klassiske skriftene før dei vart kjende i europeiske kjerneområde. Men når det gjeld lov og rett har tonen vore avvisande. Berre kristentrua skapte eit juridisk system med fridom for den einskilde. Den europeiske rettsstaten var noko eineståande, eit førebilete for alle andre kulturar. Dette synet er ikkje lenger einerådande. Forskarar viser no til samband mellom tidlege uttrykk for samlande lovgjeving i europeiske statar og den islamske rettshistoria.

Article by Ole Jakob Løland & Yuri Kasahara in Kirke og Kultur.

Evangelical Christians have been a growing political force in Latin America. In Brazil, particularly, the election of the rightwing candidate Jair Bolsonaro as president in 2018 made the political relevance of evangelical Christians clearer than ever. The support of evangelicals was a key element for Bolsonaro’s victory. His political debt is reflected in a rhetoric that emphasizes the importance of evangelical Christian values and this rhetoric often blurs the separation between the state and religion. In this article, we analyze the political impact of evangelical Christians in Brazil and discuss to what extent the alliance between this group and president Bolsonaro represents a threat to Brazil’s secularist tradition.

Med valget av Jair Messias Bolsonaro som Brasils president i 2018 ble de evangelikale kristne sin politiske makt i landet mer tydelig enn noen gang. For første gang hadde de mest profilerte protestantiske lederne omfavnet samme presidentkandidat. Det bidro til seier for høyrekandidaten Bolsonaro – som siden har basert seg på alliansen med dette nye kristne høyre i Latin-Amerikas største økonomi. Det er en allianse som setter landets sekularistiske tradisjon under press.

New article by Jayne Svenungsson in Jan-Ivar Lindén (ed.), To Understand What is Happening: Essays on Historicity (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2021), 115–127.

This paper was originally presented in conversation with Christoph Türcke and Bernhard Waldenfels as part of the event ‘The Future of Memory’, which took place in Helsinki in 2019. The paper offers a reflection on the theme against the backdrop of recent developments in memory politics, both in the Swedish context and more generally. Alluding to MacIntyre’s classical work Whose Justice? Which Rationality?, I argue that there is a close relation between memory politics and the ways in which we are able to conceive of the future. In other words, while MacIntyre argued that there is a correlation between ahistorical notions of rationality and poor conceptions of justice, I similarly contend that uniform constructions of the past tend to breed exclusory and potentially repressive visions of our future societies. An open and critical discussion of whose memory we tend to favour in our constructions of the past is therefore essential to our ability to conceive of the future in constructive and dynamic ways. It is also, I argue, essential for the future of memory itself as a critical element in any democratic society.

New article by Arvid Nærø in Teologisk tidsskrift

Professor Ole Hallesby held a central position in the Norwegian Church’s struggle for independence during the Nazi occupation of our country from 1940 to 1945. In this article his attitudes and actions as leader during the occupation will be related to his social criticism, which had been expressed since the early 1930s, among which was a theologically founded antisemitism. His close co-operation with the Nazi Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and SS Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Wagner will be presented and documented. Ole Hallesby’s social criticism from this period is characterized by the frequent interconnection of political and theological views and arguments in his thinking and by a reciprocal justification of the two.

Article by Ehab Galal in Tidsskrift for Islamforskning.

I de arabiske lande har covid-19, ligesom andre steder i verden, ført til restriktioner af den religiøse praksis, blandt andet i form af periodevis lukkede kirker og moskeer. Ligeledes har religiøse autoriteter med henvisning til religionen deltaget i debatten om covid-19’s betydning og håndtering. På denne baggrund analyseres i denne artikel, hvordan religiøse argumenter bekræfter henholdsvis udfordrer de arabiske staters håndtering af covid-19 i foråret 2020, og hvordan disse afspejler samspillet mellem stat og religion. Mens staterne gør brug af sundhedsvidenskabelig og sekulær argumentation, identificeres tre positioner blandt religiøse autoriteter: de, der støtter op om og med henvisning til religionen legitimerer staternes håndtering af covid-19; de, der finder alle svar i religionen og undgår at tale om politik; og de, der afviser og mistænkeliggør statens linje. Således afspejler debatten om håndtering af covid-19 i de arabiske lande gængse religiøse positioner i spørgsmålet om religionens rolle i samfundet.