This essay gives a macroscopic view of the space of biblical narrative in Norwegian newspaper discourse in the 20th century. The digital repository of the National Library of Norway (NLN) gives access to all Norwegian Newspapers printed since 1814. A so-called Ngram search in this repository shows that newspaper references to the Bible increased drastically during the 20th century, with a peak in the 1990’s, featuring almost seven times more hits than in the 1910’s. One reason for this increase was the change of newspaper editorial policy after radio and TV became mass media. The newspapers started reporting more “slow news”, and the frequency of biblical references is much higher in this material. Cultural products, like novels, films, and especially TV programs, contributed massively to the increase. Concentrating on tracing ten biblical narratives, the essay shows that references to individual stories could peak in different decades. It also asks what societal segment newspapers mirror when referring to biblical stories. It turns out that use of biblical stories in the cultural sector is the most important. Some stories appear in advertising etc. from business life. Very few references to biblical narratives in ecclesial use are found in the newspapers. The findings illustrate the presence of a “public Bible” and the complexity of secularization in Scandinavia. They also open new questions concerning the study of reception of biblical narratives and, indeed, the study of the Bible in the university.

The individual is given a central position in this article on church history research. To some extent, it is an article about the individual as a research object, but primarily about the individual as a subject in the research and his or her path through the sometimes difficult landscape of research. First, an introduction is given with some connection to previous research and some terminological delimitations. The fundamental importance of the researcher’s own gaze and location is emphasised. Thereafter, glimpses are given at the individual level from the context and change of a researcher and a research project. What factual and individual factors are crucial to the research process? Examples are given of when obstacles have appeared and confusion has arisen. Concretely, the article illustrates the highly individual context of a research project that reached the end of the road and was therefore, initially completely unplanned, divided into two separate projects, which led onto roads that each required several extensive new investments. An important aspect of the article is what results a psychotherapeutic education and practice can have in the subject of church history. What do these two disciplines have in common and in what way can they be combined with each other? Two such research results are cited. One is a theological doctoral dissertation on Psychoanalysis and Christian faith. The other is a scientific work from a psychological point of view offering a study in Psychoanalysis and History.

This article gives a critical analysis of four different theories on the relationship between politics and morality. One is political cynicism, according to which the political sphere has nothing to do with morality. A second theory is political realism, which argues that the moral norms that are relevant in politics are different from those valid for the relationship between individual persons. The third theory is political moralism, according to which moral considerations should have a direct impact on the actions of political agents. The author is critical towards all of these three theories and is arguing in favor of what he calls a critical political ethics. According to this theory moral considerations should have a greater impact in politics than they usually have today. However, the role of ethics is not to give direct political guidance. Rather, its task is to give a critical examination of those in political power from a moral perspective. The starting point for such a critical approach should be an ethical constructivism as well as a principle of human dignity and a theory of justice. This is a position inspired by philosophers in the tradition of critical theory, such as Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib and Rainer Forst.

Recent attacks on the academy and especially the Humanities are driven in part by a generalized fear and uncertainty inspired by encounters with difference. This essay argues that the importance of the Humanities lies in its very ability to counter this fear by fostering the epistemological humility necessary for a comprehension and celebration of the diversity and complexity of human difference. The author’s academic journey into the field of Jewish Studies is offered as an example of the transformative and enlivening power of an encounter with unfamiliar ideas. These ideas include the Hebrew Bible’s countercultural conception of the divine as a dynamic living presence, and the Talmudic rabbis’ countercultural conception of divine law as likewise dynamic and responsive to the contingent details of human existence. Resisting characterizations of divine law as a universal, immutable, rational truth, Talmudic argumentation proceeds from a posture of epistemological humility. As a form of anti-dogmatic play, it reinforces the edifying element of uncertainty and contingency in divine law and unlocks a world of possibility. The essay concludes that in an age of increasing extremism and dangerous absolutisms of all kinds, we have much to learn from disciplines like Jewish Studies that bring us face to face with countercultural possibilities, and much to learn from the ancient rabbis specifically – their skepticism, their epistemological humility, their refusal to sacrifice the particular to the universal, and their embrace of uncertainty as the vital seedbed of unending possibility.

This article explores the construction and classification of comic book superhero characters as Jewish, proposing the term “Jewish-coded superheroes” as an alternative to “Jewish superheroes” in academic analysis. The article is based on Lund’s docent lecture and grounded in an ongoing research project that aims to analyze around 100 superhero characters characterized by their creators as Jewish. I argue that the label “Jewish superheroes” is often applied in an ascriptive and normative manner, rather than analytically. By using the term “Jewish-coded superheroes”, I contend that researchers can better focus on understanding how these characters are inscribed with attributes intended for readers to recognize as Jewish, as well as the practical interests those codings may serve. The article reviews previous research and popular science works that often essentialize Jewishness, advocating instead a historicizing and process-oriented analysis. I emphasizes the importance of viewing superheroes as products of historical and cultural processes of identification and authentication rather than as bearers of inherent, essentialized identities. By examining authentication processes and classification struggles, researchers can gain a deeper understanding of how Jewishness is constructed and represented in the comic book field and beyond. The article concludes by calling for a shift in perspective within comics studies, advocating a transition from identifying “Jewish superheroes” to analyzing how these characters are coded and authenticated as Jewish. This shift, I argue, enables a more theoretically nuanced and historically grounded understanding of Jewishness in comics.

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