About the lecture
Our Limits
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?” Job. 38:16
Along the Arctic coast of Norway, populations of birds and fish have dramatically declined due to human activities driven by greed in various forms. Many of the species inhabiting the sea and coastline are travellers. Certain fish species connect the depths of the ocean with freshwater systems on land, while birds visit and populate islands both near and far. These intricate webs of relationships remain largely unknown to us, yet we continue to plan further exploitation—seeking to extract and colonize the oceans and their inhabitants.
God’s question to Job might suggest that there are limits to our knowledge. So too does Sámi oral tradition, providing other possible ways of collaborating with our natural surroundings, not least to be able to limit ourselves and our actions to respect what we do not understand. This lecture visits some coastal Sámi stories, Sámi theology, and theological perspectives from constructive theology to emphasize the importance of retaining the ability to marvel at God's mysterious creation and accept human limitations.
Link to live stream
Seminar
After the lecture, there will be an open seminar with Dr. Sjöberg, with further discussions on the topic of the lecture. The seminar will be held in room 305 from 13.00-15.00.
About The Aasta Hansteen Lecture
The Aasta Hansteen Lecture on Gender and Religion is named after an early Norwegian feminist and activist. Aasta Hansteen (1824-1908) had the courage of a pioneer to engage in critical discourse on gender, culture and theology to help promote women’s rights both in Scandinavia and North America.
In memory of Aasta Hansteen and her spiritual kin, an internationally distinguished scholar is bi-annually invited to the Faculty of Theology to give a lecture and a seminar on seminal topics and theories in the academic fields of gender and religion, and feminist theology and philosophy. The lecture series was inaugurated in September 2011 as part of celebrating 200 years of academic theology at the University of Oslo.