Ole Jakob Løland

Friedrich Nietzsche sentó a Pablo de Tarso en el banquillo de los acusados. Veía en él a un impostor movido por un deseo ilimitado de poder y el afán de tiranizar a las masas. Esta imagen ha sido rechazada por filósofos contemporáneos de la talla de Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Simon Critchley, Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva o Slavoj Žižek. Todos ellos consideran a Pablo un pensador que busca la verdad y posee un valor filosófico propio, independientemente de la creencia en Dios. Así, de forma implícita, confirman la interpretación de Pablo legada por Spinoza al comienzo de la época moderna, la del apóstol-filósofo por antonomasia, ratificando también la intuición spinoziana de que la Carta a los Romanos está basada en algo racional que trasciende la revelación divina.

Transitando el camino iniciado por Spinoza, hay una manera de leer a Pablo en el período contemporáneo que aborda al apóstol como un pensador de profundas intuiciones filosóficas. Como señala Jacob Taubes, ni siquiera Nietzsche consigue siempre ocultar su admiración por el pensamiento paulino. Las lecturas filosóficas contemporáneas de Pablo inciden en los elementos universales, mesiánicos y revolucionarios de su pensamiento y enfatizan la descripción trágica de la vida humana plasmada en sus Cartas. La visión paulina acerca del pecado original y sus consecuencias catastróficas son mucho más creíbles para estos filósofos que su doctrina de la salvación. Esto no significa, sin embargo, que rechacen de manera sistemática las palabras «Dios» o «religión». Más bien, el ateísmo de los filósofos lleva a articular, ya sea desde la reflexión política, pasando por el psicoanálisis o en la inquietud por la justicia, el encuentro cara a cara con el Otro.

This book explores the political dimension of Pope Francis’ theology from a variety of perspectives and makes a unique contribution to the ongoing historiography of his pontificate. It defines the concept of political theology when applied to Pope Francis’ discourse and reflects on the portrayal of him as the voice of Latin America, a great reformer and a revolutionary. The chapters offer a thorough investigation of core texts and key moments in Pope Francis’ papacy (2013-), focusing in particular on their relation to canon theory, liberation theology, the rise of populism, and gender issues. As well as documenting some of the continuities between the ideas of Pope Francis and his predecessor Benedict XVI, the author asks what the Argentinian pontiff has brought from Latin America and considers the Latin American dimension to what has become known as the ‘Francis effect’. Overall, the book demonstrates how the Pope’s words and actions constitute a powerful political theology disseminated from a unique religious and institutional position. It will be of interest to scholars of theology, religion, and politics, particularly those with a focus on world Catholicism, political theology, and church history.

http://www.fordhampress.com/9780823286546/pauline-ugliness/
In recent decades Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, and Slavoj Žižek have shown the centrality of Paul to western political and philosophical thought and made the Apostle a central figure in left-wing discourses far removed from traditional theological circles. Yet the recovery of Paul beyond Christian theology owes a great deal to the writings of the Jewish rabbi and philosopher Jacob Taubes (1923–1987).

Pauline Ugliness shows how Paul became an effective tool for Taubes to position himself within European philosophical debates of the twentieth century. Drawing on Nietzsche’s polemical readings of the ancient apostle as well as Freud’s psychoanalysis, Tabues developed an imaginative and distinct account of political theology in confrontations with Carl Schmitt, Theodor Adorno, Hans Blumenberg, and others. In a powerful reconsideration of the apostle, Taubes contested the conventional understanding of Paul as the first Christian who broke definitively with Judaism and drained Christianity of its political potential. As a Jewish rabbi steeped in a philosophical tradition marked by European Christianity, Taubes was, on the contrary, able to emphasize Paul’s Jewishness as well as the political explosiveness of his revolutionary doctrine of the cross.

This book establishes Taubes’s account of Paul as a turning point in the development of political theology. Løland shows how Taubes identified the Pauline movement as the birth of a politics of ugliness, the invention of a revolutionary criticism of the ‘beautiful’ culture of the powerful that sides instead with the oppressed.

Kristendommen er i rask endring og kommer til uttrykk på nye måter både sosialt og politisk. På få tiår er tyngdepunktet flyttet fra det globale nord til det globale sør. I Vest-Europa blir kirker nedlagt eller solgt. Samtidig fylles megakirker i kristendommens nye bastioner utenfor Europa. Kirkene i Midtøsten taper medlemmer når kristne forlater regionen, mens den ortodokse kirken i Russland knytter seg tettere til staten. Den største veksten av kristne skjer i Afrika. Men også i Kina og flere andre asiatiske land vokser antallet kristne, og i USA spiller kristen tro fortsatt en viktig rolle i politikken. Samtidig er katolisismen i Latin-Amerika under press fra en raskt voksende pinsebevegelse som forsterker forskyvningen av kristendommens tyngdepunkt fra nord til sør, så vel som fra de gamle etablerte kirkene til nye menigheter. Med hovedvekt på de mest folkerike landene på hvert kontinent viser forfatterne av «Global kristendom. En samtidshistorie» fram de siste tiårs endringer og diskuterer hvordan kristendom i dag kommer til uttrykk i nye politiske og sosiale sammenhenger.
Medforfattere: Vebjørn Horsfjord, Sven Thore Kloster og Gina Lende.

This is the first book devoted entirely to exploring Žižek's peculiar kind of Paulinism. It seeks to provide a full map of the Marxist philosopher’s interpretations of Paul and critically engage with it. As one of several radical leftists of European critical thought, Žižek embraces the legacy of an ancient apostle in fascinating ways. This work considers Žižek's philosophical and political readings of Paul through the lens of reception history, and argues that through this recent philosophical turn to Paul, notions of the historical and philosophical are reproduced and negotiated anew.

Hvilken status får Bibelen i vår kultur når den parodieres i The Simpsons? Hva gjør det med vår bibelforståelse når folk ser bibeltekster iscenesatt på film i stedet for å lese dem i en religiøs bok? Hvilken virkning kan Bibelen sies å ha på vår tids massekultur?

Dette er noen av spørsmålene vi ønsker å gi svar på ved å formidle noe av de siste årenes forskning på bruk av Bibelen i film, musikk, og tegneserier – samt peke på noen aktuelle eksempler som tidligere ikke har vært belyst.

Innholdsfortegnelsen kan lastes ned her - boka kommer i oktober på Scandinavian Academic Press.

Biography about the liberation theologian Lidio Dominguez (1938-) from Paraguay. He was an advisor for the Second Vatican Council as well as for the Pope John Paul II, in addition to being a main figure in the campesino movement in Paraguay and the guerilla movement Montoneros in Argentina in the era of the dictatorships on the continent. After his 31 year long exile in Norway Dominguez returned to Paraguay to rebuild his country after the election victory of the liberation theologian and catholic bishop Fernando Lugo.

Religion played a major role during the presidential elections in Brazil in 2018 and 2022. Although much has been written about Bolsonaro's religious influence on Brazilian politics, there is a need to understand how politicians on other sides of the political spectrum have positioned themselves in regard to religion. Thus, through transdisciplinary research rooted in Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) explanation phase, this article seeks to assess both Bolsonaro's and Lula's victory and inauguration speeches and their intricacies that appeal to various sorts of politicized religion by problematizing contrasting meanings in discourses of these Brazilian leaders and exploring how social circumstances have enabled or provided conditions for the reproduction of power relations between these politicians and the realm of religion, primarily Christianity. Hence, the article questions: First, which forms of political religion are expressed in the two presidents' victory speeches and inauguration speeches in the aftermath of the last two general elections? Second, in what ways have both presidents been contributing to the politicization of religion and to what degree do Lula and Bolsonaro differ in this regard? It concludes by arguing that although Bolsonaro's exclusionary religious populism can be contrasted to Lula's inclusionary civil religion, there are also some important similarities in their discourses as both politicize Brazilian religion.

The Bible is rarely quoted and referred to in contemporary political debates in Norway. There are, however, interesting exceptions to this tendency. In 2012 a debate about the national budget took place in the Storting, in which the Bible as a whole and different biblical texts were referred to 47 times. While the first politician to invoke to Bible based her argument on its good moral, the debate gradually mowed toward a rhetorical strategy to ridicule the very idea that literal interpretations of biblical texts could substantially inform political decision-making in Norway. Searches within the digital archives of the Storting suggest that a debate with such a strong presence of the Bible was unique and never to repeat itself again.

Jair Messias Bolsonaro venceu as eleições presidenciais de 2018 no Brasil com o apoio de quase 70% dos evangélicos e cerca de 50% dos católicos do país. Este artigo tem como objetivo explorar algumas das teologias políticas e influentes que são disseminadas por alguns dos aliados religiosos de Bolsonaro, construindo três tipologias teológicas: Sobrenaturalismo neoliberal, dualismo apocalíptico e neoconservadorismo católico. Sobrenaturalismo neoliberal, dualismo apocalíptico e neoconservadorismo católico. Além disso, argumentamos que a Nova Direita Cristã no Brasil é comparável ao fenômeno ‘the Christian Right’, típico dos Estados Unidos, devido às condições políticas e bandeiras morais semelhantes. A ascensão de Bolsonaro e a virada para a direita na política brasileira podem ser em parte entendidas como um efeito dessa nova aliança política legitimado de três forças cristãs politicamente conservadoras e suas teologias: o pentecostalismo tradicional, o neopentecostalismo e o catolic...

Eight years after the election of the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope in the Catholic church a pattern in Pope Francis’ pontificate with regard to gender becomes discernable. First, Pope Francis disseminates gender-stereotypical prejudices through an essentialist categorization of women as a group. Secondly, the Argentinian refuses to give women access both to priestly ordination and to ordination as deacons. Thirdly, Pope Francis confirms the Catholic church’s construction of the so-called “gender ideology” – a rhetorical figure that has proved to be a politically effective concept, especially over the past decade.

The battle for meaning and influence between Latin American liberations theologians and the Vatican was one of the most significant conflicts in the global Catholic church of the twentieth century. With the election of the Argentinean Jorge Mario Bergoglio as head of the global church in 2013, the question about the legacy of liberation theology was actualized. The canonization of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the pope's approximation to the public figure of Gustavo Gutiérrez signaled a new approach to the liberation theology movement in the Vatican. This article argues that Pope Francis shares some of the main theological concerns as pontiff with liberation theology. Although the pope remains an outsider to liberation theology, he has in a sense solved the conflict between the Vatican and the Latin American social movement. Through an analysis of ecclesial documents and theological literature, his can be discerned on three levels. First, Pope Francis' use of certain theological ideas from liberation theology has been made possible and less controversial by post-cold war contexts. Second, Pope Francis has contributed to the solution of this conflict through significant symbolic gestures rather than through a shift of official positions. Third, as Pope Francis, the Argentinian Jorge Mario Bergoglio has appropriated certain elements that are specific to liberation theology without acknowledging his intellectual debt to it.

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.

Jair Messias Bolsonaro venceu as eleições presidenciais de 2018 no Brasil com o apoio de quase 70% dos evangélicos e cerca de 50% dos católicos do país. Este artigo tem como objetivo explorar algumas das teologias políticas e influentes que são disseminadas por alguns dos aliados religiosos de Bolsonaro, construindo três tipologias teológicas: Sobrenaturalismo neoliberal, dualismo apocalíptico e neoconservatismo católico. Sobrenaturalismo neoliberal, dualismo apocalíptico e neoconservatismo católico. Além disso, argumentamos que a Nova Direita Cristã no Brasil é comparável ao fenômeno “the Christian Right”, típico dos Estados Unidos, devido às condições políticas e bandeiras morais semelhantes. A ascensão de Bolsonaro e a virada para a direita na política brasileira podem ser em parte entendidas como um efeito dessa nova aliança política legitimado de três forças cristãs politicamente conservadoras e suas teologias: o pentecostalismo tradicional, o neopentecostalismo e o catolicismo neoconservador. Embora haja traços autoritários dentro do que pode ser chamado a Nova Direita Cristã do Brasil, também se pode reconhecer esse fenômeno político como uma contribuição à democracia brasileira.

Paul is interpreted by contemporary figures of continental European thought as a precursor for modern psychoanalysis. In Jacob Taubes’ and Slavoj Žižek’s reaffirmations of Paul as the ancient foundation of both Christian introspection and Freudian psychoanalysis, the boundaries between Christianity and Judaism are renegotiated in ways that are inescapably tied to certain legacies of anti-Judaism. The turn to Paul reproduces a common feature of European philosophy with regard to Judaism; the inability or unwillingness to recognize any rationality in Jewish lawfulness.

Professor Arne Johan Vetlesen i forordet: "Ole Jakob Løland, ung prest i Den norske kirke, spør i sitt bidrag ”I de siste tider” om kirkens potensiele som miljøbevegelsens allierte. Løland viser den samfunnskritiske sprengkraften i den latin-amerikanske, især den brasilianske frigjøringsteologien som har vokst frem siden 1970-tallet. I Lølands anvendelse er dette en teologi for vår tid; en lære om det ubetingede ansvar for ofre for urett som tar karakter av en dyptgripende politisk og økonomisk systemkritikk. Den pågående ødeleggelsen av miljøet er i dette perspektivet å dels fortolke, dels bekjempe som ”terror mot Skaperverket”; en urett der de ansvarlige vet hva de gjør, der de trosser advarslene og er blinde og døve overfor sårbarheten ved alt levende."

Hip hop har tatt steget fra å være en marginal urban subkultur i USA til å bli en av de mest dominerende kulturelle uttrykksformene i den globaliserte populaerkulturen. Fra å bli utøvd av marginale grupper uten forbindelser til musikkindustrien er dens representanter nå blant klodens mestselgende artister. Følgelig bør resepsjon av bibeltekster hos disse artistene kunne si oss noe om Bibelens posisjon innenfor vestlig populærkultur.

Hugo Chávez' appropriation of the liberationist legacy in Latin America The former president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez (1954-2013), brought Latin American populism to a global audience through his rhetorical remarks and controversial appearance in the global media. Theological and biblical metaphors were part of this rhetoric. The paper states that Hugo Chávez' appropriation of theological metaphors in his populist political discourse could be considered as a symptom of the continuing influence and relevance of liberation theology in Latin America during the two last decades of victorious leftism on the continent. On one hand, liberation theology as a social movement had been weakened, especially within the Catholic Church. On the other, the bureaucratic language from the neoliberal era, tied to the Washington consensus, was to a high degree exhausted and replaced by a populist language that paved the way for religious and Christian metaphors into politics. Chávez' use of these metaphors in a way that has been consistent with liberation theology could point to the Christian and Latin American liberationist discourse as a crucial factor in the resurgence of the political left on a religiously vibrant region.

The article identifies roles and conditions for the Bible within modern politics in the West. By comparing the official Norwegian response to the terror attack in Oslo July 22, 2011 with the similar response in the US on September 11, 2001 it is explained why the Bible is nearly absent in the official discourse of Norwegian Prime Ministers. While religion resurfaced in the process of national recuperation with the Cathedral of Oslo as a center for mass ritualization and national grief, the biblical legacy played no part in the Prime Minister’s speech. The primary political leader of the Norwegian state has rarely bolstered his argument with the Bible, although this state has officially adhered to a Protestant confession from its Constitution in 1814. The Liberal Bible that appears to be operative in US presidential discourse is not playing a major role on a comparable political level in Norway.

Sammendrag Dette bokessayet drøfter fremstillinger av latinamerikansk kristendom med utgangspunkt i boka The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity (2014) av Todd Hartch. Artikkelforfatteren gir sin tilslutning til at mikroøkonomiske modeller kan anvendes for å forstå protestantisk vekst og katolsk revitalisering i nyere latinamerikansk kristendom. Samtidig kritiseres tendensen i forskningslitteraturen som Hartch representerer, til å forklare aksepten for basismenigheter innenfor Den katolske kirke ensidig ut fra religiøs konkurranse. Dernest problematiseres vektingen av de ulike strømningene i faglitteraturen som gjenspeiles i Hartchs bok. En oppdatert fremstilling av kristen religion i Latin-Amerika må ikke minst vie den katolsk-karismatiske vekkelsen (CCR) tilstrekkelig oppmerksomhet. Abstract: This book essay evaluates the presentations of Latin American Christianity in The Rebirth of Latin American Christianity (2014) by Todd Hartch. The author of the article agrees to the view that microeconomical models can contribute to understand Protestant growth and Catholic revitalization in contemporary Latin American Christianity. All the same, the tendency within research literature, represented by Hartch, to explain the acceptance of base communities within the Catholic Church solely out of religious competition, is criticized. The representations of the different research trends in this field of study in Hartch's book are also problematized; an updated view of Christian religion in Latin America must pay due attention to the Catholic Charismatic Renewal (CCR). Latin-Amerika har vaert åstedet for noen av de mest spektakulaere omveltningene i kristenheten de seneste tiårene. Frigjøringsteologer og andre radikale kirkelige aktører havnet midt i den ideologiske og militaere kryssilden under den kalde krigen, da de på ulike måter solidariserte seg med fattige. Parallelt med denne politisk kontroversielle utfoldelsen av kristendommen erobret protestantismen, først og fremst i form av pinsevekkelsen, nye religiøse territorier på kontinentet. Det fikk forskere som David Stoll til å spørre om Latin-Amerika var i ferd med å bli protestantisk, og andre til begrunne sine forsøk på falsifikasjon av tesen om kontinentets protestantisk fremtid. 1 Men det er bred enighet om at det har funnet sted så store religiøse endringer i Latin-Amerika at både gjør at mange forskere slutter seg til overskrifter som «Conversion of a Continent» og spør hva en omvendelse av et helt kontinent mer grunnleggende betyr. 2

Under den såkalte europeiske flyktningekrisen i 2015 var Norge vitne til noen av de mest intense verbale konfrontasjonene mellom biskoper i Den norske kirke og statsråder i den norske regjering i nyere tid. Artikkelen forsøker å vise hvordan de retoriske praksisene i denne konflikten gjenspeiler to ulike modeller for det politiske i offentligheten: Jürgen Habermas' deliberative demokrati og Chantal Mouffes agonistiske demokrati. Fra et teologisk ståsted kan Habermas' ideal om oversettelse av et religiøst språk til et sekulaert sies å begrense kirkens politiske engasjement. Men Mouffes modell kan gi større rom for teologiens praktiske, lidenskapelige og imaginaere dimensjoner. During the so-called " European Migrant Crisis " in 2015 Norway witnessed some of the most intense verbal confrontations between the bishops in the Church of Norway and ministers in the Norwegian government in recent history. The article aims at demonstrating how rhetorical practices within this conflict reflect two different models for the political in the public square: Jürgen Habermas' model of deliberative democracy and Chantal Mouffe's model of agonistic democracy. From a theological point of view, Habermas' ideal of translating the religious language into a secular one restricts the public intervention of the Church. Moreover, Mouffe's model allows the practical, passionate and imaginary dimensions of theology to come more to the fore. I det følgende vil jeg kort gjengi hovedtrekkene i en strid mellom Den norske kirkes biskoper og den norske regjeringen og plassere den i en bredere norsk kontekst. I denne striden mener jeg å finne likheter med to ulike modeller for politikk, hvorav begge er fremtredende innenfor debatter i politisk teori: Jürgen Habermas' deliberative modell og Chantal Mouffes agonistiske modell. Begge modellene har implikasjoner for religiøst språk i en moderne offentlighet og for hva slags politisk teologi som er virksom i kirkens politiske engasjement. Artikkelen vil peke på noen muligheter og begrensninger for kirkens politiske rolle med utgangspunkt i det som kan betegnes som teologiens fire kognitive former: den imaginaere, lidenskapelige, praktiske og intellektuelle.

Den kristne tradisjonen inneholder visjoner om fred mellom alle mennesker. Forutsetningen for fred i en kristen betydning kan sies å vaere rettferdighet. Derfor er en forvandling av undertrykkende økonomiske relasjoner som saerlig fattige lider under, en essensiell del av arbeidet for fred. Den latinamerikanske frigjøringsteologien har tatt i bruk alle sine teologiske redskaper for å bekjempe økonomisk undertrykkelse. Det har resultert i en teologisk kritikk av nyliberalismen, utviklet gjennom DEI-skolen. Er denne kritikken så konsistent at den utgjør en solid og viktig ressurs i kirkenes arbeid for fred?

Religion has returned in ways in which it often more violently constitutes itself as antithetical to technology in today’s world. In this process, religion perceives digital technology as its Other and a threat to its life, according to the philosopher Jacques Derrida. However, technology has always been inherent to Christian devotion of the Bible, since it relies upon a specific technology: the codex form. With the digital revolution, the Christian idea of the Bible as “the Book of books” may be threatened. The technological revolution leads readers to new notions of textuality, which may offer an opportunity to reconsider the Bible as text in a digital age.