The work that first brought Mowinckel his international fame were his six volumes in the series of Psalmenstudien (“Psalm Studies”, 1921–24). This row of studies, published in the provincial town of Oslo, Norway, turned out to exert lasting influence upon the academic study of the biblical Book of Psalms. For a more comprehensive account of Mowinckel’s life and work, please consult S. Hjelde, Sigmund Mowinckel und seine Zeit, Leben Und Werk Eines Norwegischen Alttestamentlers (Forschungen Zum Alten Testament), Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2006.
During the first some 30 years the invited Mowinckel lecturers were recognized, well-established international researchers. More recently, the faculty decided to let the Mowinckel lecture reflect the efforts of the biblical scholars at TF to formulate biblical research so as to be relevant to the 21st Century intellectual and cultural climate. Currently, therefore, we also invite younger scholars that we see as coming intellectual notabilities, and with research that we find relevant for our ongoing efforts to develop biblical studies as something more than a museal enterprise.
Normally, the Mowinckel lectures are subsequently published in the journal of Studia Theologica.
Previous Mowinckel lecturers
- 2018: Dr. Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme, Professor (mso) at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen
- 2016: Professor Ehud Ben Zvi, University of Alberta, Canada.
- Chronicles and Social Memory
- 2014: Professor Francis Landy, University of Alberta
- Prophecy as Trap. Isaiah 6 and its Permutations
- 2012: Professor Karel van der Toorn, University of Amsterdam
- Turning Tradition into Eternal Truth: The Invention of Revelation
- 2010: Professor Ellen van Wolde, Radboud University, Nijmegen
- First Separation, then Creation on the Verb Bara in Genesis 1 and Genesis 6-9
- 2008: Professor Carol Meyers, Duke University
- In the Household and Beyond: The Social World of Israelite Women
- 2006: Professor John J. Collins, Yale University
- Mowinckel's 'He That Cometh' in Retrospect
- 2004: Professor Jean Louis Ska, Pontificio Istituto Biblico
- 2001: Professor David J. A. Clines, University of Sheffield
- 2000: Professor Birger A. Pearson, University of California, Santa Barbara
- 1999: Professor Joseph Blenkinsopp, University of Notre Dame
- The Unity of the Book of Isaiah
- 1997: Professor Rudolf Smend, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
- 1996: Professor Wiard Popkes, Universität Hamburg
- The Composition of James and Intertextuality. An Exercise in Methodology
- 1995: Professor Magnus Ottoson, Uppsala universitet
- Tempelklippa och Golgataklippa - En jãmförelse i tradition och historia
- 1994: Professor Andreas Lindemann, Kirchliche Hochschule Bethel, Bielefeld
- "Do not let a Woman Destroy the Unborn Babe in Her Belly" Why has Abortion been Rejected in Ancient Judaism and Christianity?
- 1993: Professor Rolf Rendtorff, Universität Heidelberg
- "Canonical Interpretation" - A New Approach to Biblical Texts
- 1992: Professor Adela Yarbro Collins, University of Chicago
- The Genre of the Passion Narrative
- 1991: Professor David Noel Freedman, University of Michigan
- The Symmetry of the Hebrew Bible
- 1990: Professor Hans Dieter Betz, University of Chicago
- Christianity as Religion: Paul's Attempt at Definition in Romans
- 1989: Professor Abraham Malamat, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
- Israel between Egypt and Babylon
- 1988: Professor Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Harvard Divinity School
- Critical Inquiry and Commitment in Biblical Studies
- 1987: Professor James Barr, University of Oxford,
- The Old Testament and the Problem of Natural Theology
- 1986: Professor Helmut H. Koester, Harvard University
- The History-of-Religion School, Gnosis and John's Gospel
- 1984: 27 September 1984 - Mowinckel-symposium