The New Testament research group
The goal of the New testament group is to contribute to the exploration of New Testament texts from historical, reception historical or contemporary perspectives.
Research on theory and methodology has a significant place within the activities of this area. Women and gender studies have for a long time played an important part in the a work of the group.
About the group
The New Testament research group is made up of faculty and PhD-students , with most activities open for advanced master students. The work of the group is conducted by compact seminars, especially for work on common projects, and partly through monthly, shorter seminar meetings where also students are invited.
Presently, due to faculty vacancies, there is a small permanent group at the Faculty, with Halvor Moxnes, professor, Ole Jakob Løland and Anders Martinsen, PhD-students, but former lecturers and PhD-candidates participate in work of the group: Gitte Buch-Hansen (Copenhagen), Marianne Bjelland Kartzow (Berlin), Rebecca Solevåg (Stavanger).
Activities
Presently the group is engaged in the following activities:
- The group has initiated a Nordic collaboration on presentations of new approaches in methods and theoretical perspectives on interpretation of New Testament texts (Initiator, Gitte Buch-Hansen). The goal is to produce a book that be used as text-book for Nordic students in theology and religious studies. The project , that already has been accepted for publication by a Norwegian academic press, will present various approaches to the story of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. ( Prelim. Title: I fotsporene til den etiopiske evnukk. Nye perspektiver på bibelfortolkningens teori og praksis. In the footsteps of the Ethiopian Eunuch. New perspectives on theory and praxis of biblical interpretation)
- Related to this project is a study of masculinities and slavery in the New Testament , partly as a PhD-project (Anders Martinsen), and partly as a project on theories on masculinities and gender. This aspect of the group’s activities is part of the collaboration with the research group on Gender Studies, based on a shared interest in theory and contextuality.
- The third aspect of the group’s activities focuses on reception history in a cultural context (Halvor Moxnes, Jesus and the Rise of Nationalism. A new quest for the nineteenth century historical Jesus, I.B. Tauris 2012) and contemporary uses of the New Testament especially by modern philosophers like Zizek and Taubes. (Ole Jakob Løland).