Publikasjoner

På denne siden finner du oversikt over nye publikasjoner ved IAR.

For bøker publisert til og med 2008, se her. I menyen til venstre finnes også informasjon om seriene Relieff, UniTRel og KRA.

Judaic Technologies of the Word: A Cognitive Analysis of Jewish Cultural Formation
Equinox 2012 (forthcoming)

Judaic Technologies of the Word argues that Judaism does not exist in an abstract space of reflection. Rather, it exists both in artifacts of the material world - such as texts - and in the bodies, brains, hearts, and minds of individual people. More than this, Judaic bodies and texts, both oral and written, connect and feed back on one another. Judaic Technologies of the Word examines how technologies of literacy interact with bodies and minds over time. The emergence of literacy is now understood to be a decisive factor in religious history, and is central to the transformations that took place in the ancient Near East in the first millennium BCE. This study employs insights from the cognitive sciences to pursue a deep history of Judaism, one in which the distinctions between biology and culture begin to disappear.

Papers from N-TAG TEN, the Proceedings of the 10th Nordic TAG conference at Stiklestad, Norway 2009.
BAR International series 2399: 2012

Transformations and Transfer of Tantra in Asia and Beyond
Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter 2012

The essays in this volume, written by specialists working in the field of tantric studies, attempt to trace processes of transformation and transfer that occurred in the history of tantra from around the seventh century and up to the present. The volume gathers contributions on South Asia, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, North America, and Western Europe by scholars from various academic disciplines, who present ongoing research and encourage discussion on significant themes in the growing field of tantric studies. In addition to the extensive geographical and temporal range, the chapters of the volume cover a wide thematic area, which includes modern Bengali tantric practitioners, tantric ritual in medieval China, the South Asian cults of the mother goddesses, the way of Buddhism into Mongolia, and countercultural echoes of contemporary tantric studies.

Ecological Awareness. Exploring Religion, Ethics and Aesthetics
Berling: LIT Verlag 2011

The past years have seen an ecological development in religions that is staggering. These efforts are responses to difficult local and global ecological problems, with an increased awareness that religions need to be alert, engaged and active partners in the work for a sustainable future.

Ecological Awareness - with 17 authors from theology, religious studies, biology, sociology and philosophy - explores how religious practitioners have become increasingly aware of ecological challenges. The book considers aspects of ecological awareness: personal, social, political, religious and ecological. It sheds new light on an essential function of belief systems, which function not only as cognitive and moral systems, but emerge from and affect our human body and its mode of perceiving our milieu and ourselves within it. The book contributes to an increasing awareness of our embeddedness in larger life processes, as well as the awareness of life as a gift.

Tabari: Makers of Islamic Civilization
London: I.B. Tauris 2011

Medieval historian al-Tabari (c. 828-923 CE) was a brilliant scholar of 'Abbasid Baghdad who wrote extensively in all fields of the Islamic science of his day: historiography, scriptural interpretation and jurisprudence. His massive History of the Messengers and Kings is the primary source for the information that we have about Sasanian Persia and the first three centuries of Islam. As well as being a historical record of outstanding importance, it is also of the greatest interest for what is says about the principles of good Islamic governance. In a concise overview of his life, thought and major writings, Ulrika Martensson explores the philosophy and methodology than underpin Tabari's thinking, and places his work in the context of the complex - and sometimes administratively heterogeneous - society that comprised the 'Abbasid Caliphate. Tabari's argument that effective government is dependent on merit, not preferment, and on the separation of political and religious authority, is shown to have much contemporary resonance for Muslims.

Religion in Environmental and Climate Change. Suffering, Values, Lifestyles
Continuum 2011

Climate change and other global environmental changes deserve attention by the the humanities - they are caused mainly by human attitudes and activities and feed back to human societies. Focussing on religion allows for analysis of various human modes of perception, action and thought in relation to global environmental change. On the one hand, religious organizations are aiming to become "greener"; on the other hand, some religious ideas and practices display fatalism towards impacts of climate change.

Fundamentalism in the Modern World Vol 2: Fundamentalism and Communication: Culture, Media and the Public Sphere (International Library of Political Studies) London: I.B. Tauris 2011

How does religious fundamentalism operate in modern global society? This is the second book in a two-volume set analyzes the dynamics of fundamentalism and its relationship to the modern state, the public sphere and globalization. This volume explores the links between fundamentalism and communication: the rise of fundamentalism as a mass media phenomenon, fundamentalist communication in the public sphere, national cultural identities and the rise of a "global society." Expert scholars in the field address specific contemporary and past fundamentalist movements that have emerged from within mainstream Islam, Christianity, Baha'ism, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism. This is an important study of an increasingly significant and virulent aspect of modern society, and will be essential reading in the fields of Religion, Politics, Communications and Media Studies.

Fundamentalism in the Modern World Vol 1: Fundamentalism, Politics and History: The State, Globalisation and Political Ideologies (International Library of Political Studies).
London: I.B. Tauris 2011

How does religious fundamentalism operate in modern global society? This book is the first in a two-volume set that analyzes the dynamics of fundamentalism and its relationship to the modern state, the public sphere and globalization. In this first volume, fundamentalism is approached from the perspective of state and community building, ideology and practices within the context of global society, and the ways in which fundamentalism is intertwined with issues of politics, state power, democracy, globalization, political activism and political ideology. Expert scholars in the field address specific contemporary and past fundamentalist movements that have emerged from within mainstream Islam, Christianity, Baha'ism, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism. This is an important study of an increasingly significant and controversial aspect of modern society, and will be essential reading in the fields of Religion, Politics and International Relations.

Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy.
Newcastle: CSP, 2011.

Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy aims to explore the thought of one of the most controversial characters of Christian history, Dionysius the Areopagite, and put it in a correct context, between pagan (namely Neoplatonic) philosophy on the one side, and Christian theology, on the other. In significant part, the book examines Dionysius' Neoplatonic sources, but it also offers insights into the original points of his philosophy and theology, thus showing how he managed to achieve a masterful integration of pagan thought and newly revealed faith.

The chapters of the book, taken together, try to offer a broad insight into the Areopagite's thought, through examining not just his intellectual background and milieu, but also some of the crucial features of his work, such as notions of hierarchy, deification, apophatic and cataphatic theologies, icon, and others. This work is of a multidisciplinary character, since Dionysius' thought has been studied from different points of view, so the contributions range from philosophy and theology to history and art history.

Dionysius the Areopagite between Orthodoxy and Heresy is intended for both specialists and non-specialists. Apart from being a collection of specific studies, it can also serve as an introduction to the Areopagite's thought, and will be useful to all those interested in late antique and early Christian philosophy and theology, patristics, and cultural studies in general.

Symbol & Icon. Dionysius the Areopagite and the Iconoclastic Crisis.
Wipf & Stock: 2010    

A Circumpolar Reappraisal: The Legacy of Gutorm Gjessing (1906-1979).
BAR International Series 2154 2010