New Testament and Early Christian Studies
Who were the first Christians? What did they think and write? How did they live, and what do their perspectives mean for us today? These and many other questions are posed in the research group New Testament and Early Christian Studies.
About the Group
The research group studies foundational texts in the Christian world and these texts’ formative time. Our researchers also look at the material culture which history has handed over to us from the early Christian centuries.
The texts that we study include the New Testament, apocryphal literature, the Nag Hammadi codices, hagiographies, and the writings of the Church Fathers. The research group pays attention to the ancient texts as such, but also to the complex process of interpreting them. We encourage critical, innovative, and ethically engaged readings of ancient material and its reception. For us, hermeneutical awareness implies a gender perspective on history.
The group consists of researchers (PhD Candidates, Postdoctoral Fellows and permanent Faculty) who work within the field of early Christianity and New Testament studies. It is led by Professor Marianne Kartzow.
Former members of the group, who have previously worked at the Faculty of Theology and occasionally participate, include: David Hellholm (Senior Professor), Kirsten Marie Hartvigsen (Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Educational Sciences), Gitte Buch-Hansen (Professor, Copenhagen), Anna Rebecca Solevåg (Professor, VID), and members of the completed NEWCONT Project.
Cooperation and Networks
Local cooperation partners:
- Centre for Gender Research
- Bodies in Motion: Religion and Corporeality in Late Antiquity (funded by the Norwegian Research Council)
The group members are involved in several international networks:
- Association Internationale d’Études Patristiques (AIEP/IAPS)
- Collegium Patristicum Lundense
- European Association of Biblical Studies
- European Society of Women in Theological Research (ESWTR)
- International Association for Coptic Studies (IACS)
- Nordic Byzantine Network
- North American Patristics Society (NAPS)
- Society of Biblical Literature
- Society for New Testament Studies (STUDIORUM NOVI TESTAMENTI SOCIETAS)