Article ”The Ritual Person”

A chapter that I removed from my book Ritualization and Human Interiority before publication (2013) has now (2015) been published in India in the journal Anvikshiki (connected to the philosophy and religion department at BHU in Varanasi) as ”The Ritual Person”. At the time, I felt it necessary to deal in some length with the notion of ’person’ as a background for the discussion of interiorization, but decided to cut it out to make the book more focused. I have put the article here in XPS format as the journal is available only in print and not, to my knowledge, to any great extent spread outside of India.

Ritual Person

A reflection on the relation between Catholic theology and religious studies

A presentation that I did in  2013 at the Pontificia Università San Tommaso as part of the workshop Scandinavian Theologians Teaching Catholic Theology is now published in a Festschrift (in Swedish) as  ”Reflektion över relationen mellan katolsk teologi och religionsvetenskap” [A reflection on the relation between Catholic theology and religious studies] in Den trogne arbetaren i vingården: Festskrift till Bo Claesson, ed. Staffan Olofsson. LIR.skrifter.varia: Göteborg, pages 109–118.

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Religion as a human phenomenon

Here is an article that I published 2012 in an Indian journal. A Swedish version was published 2014 in:

SEGL: katolsk årsskrift for religion og samfunn, eds. Ståle Johannes Kristiansen & Peder K. Solberg: 301–310.

 

Religion as a human phenomenon vs. openness to transcendence

 

An issue hotly debated within religious studies due to its importance for the discipline’s identity and status, is the choice between, on the one hand, a study of religion as a purely natural phenomenon and, on the other hand, a perspective that not a priori rejects the truth claims of religious traditions concerning supernatural realities. In the following, I will discuss these two approaches and sketch a position of my own.

The Lost and Found Saint

I have promised you, dear reader, an account of the fascinating history of the painting that was stolen and then found again. What follows here is what I have learned from persons working in the church where the painting hung, and whom I know to be trustworthy people.

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Some old paintings

I am just adding here some pictures of old paintings though I have to buy a polarization filter to take away the reflections. When I do I will post updated pictures.