Program
Opening by Dean Aud V. Tønnessen.
Opening lecture by professor Marianne Bjelland Kartzow:
Feelings, fiction and fake: Books and rumors of books in book religions.
Books are useful to think with. In everyday life and in crises, books have been written and read, in order to search for meaning or authority. Some books, however, were never written; they were rather imagined or projected or merely talked about. They were still real. Some books are hidden, secret or dangerous. How can people’s relations to books tell us something about their believes, dreams, fears and hopes? In what ways do books mess up structures of gender, sex and death? When studying books and rumors of books in the New Testament and other early Christian texts, we see more complexity and nuances, helping us to rethink power, archival practices and feelings, related to sacred texts and religion.
The lecture will be given in English.