Luther i den moderna lutherdomens tjänst

There are plenty of misconceptions about how the Luther Renais­sance in Sweden relates to Albrecht Ritschl and nineteenth-century German Luther research. This article sheds new light on the importance of Ritschl's groundbreaking Luther interpretation to the first generation of the Swedish Luther Renaissance, as represented by its leading voices – Einar Billing and Nathan Söderblom. I demonstrate that there are substantial similarities between how Ritschl, Billing, and Söderblom approach and make use of Luther's thought. They all combine a careful analysis of Luther's theology with an interest in understanding his role in history. And despite their high regard of Luther as the great Protestant reformer, Ritschl, Billing, and Söderblom at times show a considerable distance to his thinking. It is also evident that they found solutions to contemporary questions and challenges in Luther's writings. Their constructive use of Luther is, I further argue, closely related to a positive reception of histor­ical criticism and an ambition to make Lutheranism relevant to modern society. This to a large extent explains why Ritschl, Billing, and Söderblom have a freer attitude towards Luther than many of their Lutheran col­leagues, and also why they emphasize those aspects of his theology that they consider especially fruitful for modern society.

"Ett löfte om lycka"

In this essay, I explore an innovative theme in the interfaces between theology, gender studies, aesthetic theory, and literary studies. More specifically, my aim is to shed light on fundamental theological conflicts underlying the immensely complex subject of the elevated status of "the beautiful woman" as image and idea in Western society. This will be implemented through a close reading of the influential short story of French nineteenth-century novelist Honoré de Balzac, Le Chef-d'œuvre inconnu (The Unknown Masterpiece), from 1831. By virtue of this theologically informed reading, important facets of modern Western society's fantasy of the beautiful woman come to the fore. The essay discloses how this fantasy has far-reaching tentacles and ramifications, by which the beautiful female becomes identified with beauty per se, with art, nature, the divine, and even with life itself. Balzac's short story presents the reader with a strong statement of the scopophilic tendency of Western visual arts, but in its final peripeteia it also provides us with the tools to bring forth a contrary reading, and a direct confrontation with the traditional understanding of the task of the painter.

Ledare

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Philip Geister & Gösta Hallonsten (red.), Faithful Interpretations: Truth and Islam in Catholic Theology of Religions

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Karin Rubenson, Karnevalesk gudstjänst: Barns plats i kyrkans liturgi

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In memoriam Eberhard Herrmann (1946–2021)

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In memoriam Christoph Schwöbel (1955–2021)

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Ola Sigurdson, Gudomliga komedier: Humor, subjektivitet, transcendens

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Erik Aurelius (red.), Gustaf Wingren som bibelteolog: Texter i urval och med inledning av Erik Aurelius

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En Gud värdig tillbedjan

The purpose of this paper is to widen the discussion on worship and question the assumption that only a personal God can be worthy of worship. Within philosophy of religion, the contemporary debate on worship axiomatically assumes that only a personal God is worthy of worship and a conception of God tends to only be regarded as religiously adequate if the god in question is worthy of worship. In this paper, I focus on monistic non-personal pantheism: a conception of the divine as a non-personal Unity. The analysis looks to the "radical model" of worship outlined by George Chryssides and the theory of the numinous by Rudolf Otto. The radical model for worship does not accept that only a personal being can be worthy of worship. The article shows that Otto's theory of the numinous can be used to bridge the gap between non-personal, and personal, conceptions of God/the divine. In other words, even if we accept Otto's theory of the holy and the numinous we cannot draw the conclusion that only a personal God can be worthy of worship.