Studies in the Bible and Antiquity
Studies in the Bible and Antiquity is work on the Old Testament and the New Testament, and on the formative phase of Christianity’s development in ancient society both from an historical and from a contemporary perspective.
Presentation of the research area
Studies in the Bible and Antiquity includes the Bible as a set of literary texts in their historical context, the development of Israelite and Jewish religion, and the establishment of Christianity as a new religion within the Greco-Roman world. These research tasks have led to a great deal of interdisciplinary contact and collaboration between this scholarly group at the Faculty and other disciplines, including history, the history of religions, classical studies in language and literature.
Central research problems at the faculty are how Judaism and Christianity developed their own distinctives regarding theology and ethics, liturgy and piety, organization and individual self understanding. An area of expertise developed in recent years has been the study of the representation of women in the texts, and the significance of family, sexuality, and asceticism for early Christianity.
The interpretation of the biblical and historical texts is central, and this has led to a good deal of interdisciplinary collaboration on new interpretation theory and method. The research environment participates in international research for example as regards literary and rhetorical theories, feminism, social-scientific perspectives, and postcolonial theory. The research environment also participates in international collaborations on studies of the historical development of text editions of biblical scriptures and the canonicity of scriptures.
The function of the biblical texts for preaching, theology and ethics in the Christian churches, as culture-bearing texts in the Western tradition, and as “sacred texts” in a multireligious society, raises new challenges for the research field. The significance of the authority of texts in relation to current perceptions of personal autonomy, the answers given by premodern texts to current ethical problems, and their role in inter-religious dialogue, are all questions being addressed by the research environment.
Research projects
Networks
- OTSEM - Old Testament Studies: Epistemologies and Methods
- Nordic Network for the Study of the Religious Roots of Europe
- Early Christianity in its Greco-Roman Context