Research Profile
Professor Terje Stordalen is a renowned cross-disciplinary oriented scholar within the field of biblical and ancient literature, who explores purposes and societal contracts for biblical studies in the 21st century. Below is a short presentation. For publications and more, see Terje Stordalen
As a scholar of the Hebrew Bible / Old Testament I received a classical, historical-critical education, including language studies in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Akkadian, and Ugaritic. From the 1990's onwards I have also practiced literary and hermeneutical approaches to biblical literature, and later also comparative cultural studies and memory studies. Lately I especially focused on the use of social sciences in the study of texts and cultures from the deep past, including a study of material religion. From 2016 I have a position as visiting professor at the Nordic Centre for the Study of Family Law, Practices and Policies, Institute of Law, Aalborg University, Denmark. In this capacity i participate as a text person, as a cultural historian, and with the use of social scientific analysis.
In terms of themes, these are for the time being my primary interests:
- Canonicity and canonization in comparative and social scientific perspectives.
- Ancient Hebrew and West-Asian wisdom literature, with a focus on the biblical Book of Job.
- The concept of family – in the tensions between state family legislation and ideology, cultural and historical influences, and the actual performance of family life in present society.
- The importance of the local level (villages, small towns, rural communities) in ancient Levantine socieites and cultures – and the role that this insight could have in the interpretation of ancient texts that usually emerge from more elite circles.
- Religious aniconism og so-called logocentrism in the ancient Levant and in present-day monotheistic religions.
Leadership
- Co-ordinator for the research network OTSEM 2004 – 2010 (started with financial support from NordForsk).
- Co-ordinator of the top international conference, Tell Text, Empire, University of Oslo, 2008.
- Sccientific leader for the trans-facultary and cross-disciplinary research initiative PluRel 2009-2010.
- Leder for the international and cross-disciplinary reserach group Local Dynamics of Globalization in the Pre-Modern Levant, Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo 2014–15.
- From August 2020, Scientific Director for the national research school Authoritative Texts and Their Reception.
