Lund blog

Two blogs a month - wasn't that what I promised? I'll have to hurry up... *Badconscience*

As I am still living and studying in Lund, this blog unavoidably gets focused a lot on this little town that tries to belong to Sweden, while the rest of the country thinks that it's almost Danish. Sorry for that. ;-)

On Wednesday, we here in Lund had a thesis seminar, where we and our supervisors talked about the status quo of our dear master theses. Funnily enough it seems that our supervisors have more faith in our chances of finishing in time (i.e. beginning of June) than we have ourselves. Let's wait and see who will be right.

The afternoon was also an excellent opportunity to take some pictures with the entire fourth cycle in Lund. As one of us normally studies on distance, we don't get to gather too often in front of Theologicum with the four of us. We also took some pictures with the supervisors and with Avram, a student from a previous cycle who also finishes his thesis right now.

The day ended with a dinner at an Italian restaurant together with some 5th cycle students (also one from Copenhagen, hooray!) and with other people who for some inunderstandable reason know what the abbreviation RRE stands for. Härligt! As quite some people said: "we should do this more often."

/PD

Fourth cycle in Lund. Fltr: Anna, Thomas, Rasuole & Paula

Open Lectures - more info

It has been mentioned before, but now there is an official invitation for RRE's open lectures at the Lund Faculty, coming from our coordinator Andreas Westergren. Read!

Visualizing Holiness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam

The Religious Roots of Europe Open Lectures, Spring 2014

In spite of cautions against the use of images of the holy, depictions of saintly figures have played a profound role in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In a series of open lectures, this tension will be examined. Three concrete examples of visualization of holiness will be given in history (Krueger) and in the present (Lund and Markussen). The first lecturer, Derek Krueger, is a well-renowned scholar in the study of Late Antiquity and early Byzantium, with a particular interest in saints' stories and gender issues. He is the author of Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East. In the second lecture, we turn to the present, and to Jewish superheroes, with the help of Martin Lund. Last year he defended a thesis, Rethinking the Jewish-Comics Connection, at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies. Finally, Hege Irene Markussen will display how the Imam Ali has been depicted on posters. She is an expert on the Alevites in Turkey, and has published Teaching History, Learning Piety: an Alevi Foundation in Contemporary Turkey. 

Welcome!

Thursday MARCH 13, 18.15, room 118

Visual Celebrations of the Biblical Drama in Early Byzantium 

Prof. Derek Krueger, University of North Carolina at Greenboro

Wednesday MARCH 26,16.15, room 118

A Graphic Chain of Tradition: Jewish Memory, Appropriation, Edification, and Polemics in Superhero Comic Books

Dr. Martin Lund, Lund University

Tuesday MAY 20, 16.15, room 118

Visualization of the Imam Ali in Popular Prints

Dr. Hege Irene Markussen, Lund University

10 September, 16.15, room 118

All lectures take place at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Allhelgona Kyrkogata 8, Lund. For more information, email andreas.westergren@teol.lu.se.

Another nice thing: below blog about the lighter side of RRE was written by our newest blogger, Thomas Hermansson. He's a fourth-cycle student at Lund University. Thomas, thanks for helping out - we hope to read more from your hand.

/PD

The lighter side of RRE

On the lighter side of RRE, I bring you: The Simplified Map of Traditional Religious Affiliation in the European Civilization at the Present Time. *Drumroll*

Interpretation:
Red - Eastern Orthodoxy
Blue - Roman Catholicism
Purple: Classic Protestantism
Brown: Islam

/TH

Three hoorays

Today, the paper told me that January 2014 has been the darkest month since 1983, the year that they started counting the sun hours. We had 8 (!!!) hours of sun here in our University town. Hooray for February and for the at least three hours of sun that we had today!

Another hooray for the fact that vårterminen (Spring Term) has started here, because that means: Open Lectures. As every term, we'll have three lectures here at CTR, often followed by an informal get-together in a pub or restaurant. The theme of this term: 'Visualizing Holiness in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.'
 

Thursday March 13th, 18.15, room 118

 

Visual Celebrations of the Biblical Drama in Early Byzantium Prof. Derek Krueger, University of North Carolina at Greenboro and author of Writing and Holiness: The Practice of Authorship in the Early Christian East

Wednesday March 26th,16.15, room 118

A Graphic Chain of Tradition: Jewish Memory, Appropriation, Edification, and Polemics in Superhero Comic Books

Dr. Martin Lund, Lund University

Tuesday MAY 20, 16.15, room 118

Visualization of the Imam Ali in Popular Prints Dr. Hege Irene Markussen

If you want more information, you can ask our coordinator Andreas Westergren.

A small though audible hooray at last, for the fact that two fellow students have shown interest in also contributing to the blog - it will be good if my dictatorship here on the blog comes to an end. ;-) More follows soon!

/PD

Looking back on Oslo

Happy new year and a sincere apology from the writer of this blog - it's almost two months since the last update. The only apologiy that I can bring in is a Thesis Colloquium that had to be written and some travelling all over Europe. Oh yeah, and Christmas, maybe. Stupid apologies. Hereby I give the New Year Intention to write at least two blogs every month. (Some help of other students would be much appreciated in this, hinthint.)

So, what to start with? It turned out that my camera still had quite some pictures left from the time in Oslo, the last days of November. After our visit to Minhaj Ul Qumran our week was far from over.

Thursday we were 'off' - except from 6 hours of classes. Eric and me made a little tour through Oslo.

Oslo Harbour. Time: 15.05 CET.

Friday afternoon brought a visit to another mosque: the Bosnian mosque. We were present at the the Friday prayer. Here 5 of the 7 women in the 4th cycle prior to the prayer. Photo: Zejian Zeng.

After the prayer we talked with Imam Faruk Terzic. We felt very welcome and learned a lot! 

From Islam to Judaism - Friday night we were invited at the house of our teacher Gunnar and his family for a sabbath meal! A very special experience to witness 'theoretical knowledge' in practice, a chance to pick up the Hebrew that I had all forgotton and, not in the least, a night with great food and good conversations. 

On Saturday morning, we also visited a synagogue, but we couldn't make pictures there. Instead a few from the trip that Eric, me and Rasuole made in the afternoon. We took the the subway up for 20 minutes and suddenly we had left Oslo behind and were in the middle of nature. A great end to a great seminar.

/PD

Hello from Oslo - part 1

 We - at least most of us - made it to the Norwegian capital and today (well, actually 'yesterday') we had our first lectures in the Contemporary course. Among others our professor for Judaism showed a small part of the Hanukkah ritual, as today is the start of the Jewish feast - never a dull moment in RRE classes!

The evening brought a visit to Minhaj Ul Quran, an Islamic center here in Oslo. Our very own student Nasir gave us a tour through the center and we were treated to a yummy (and spicy) dinner. A great night! Now the light is going out in the girls' hostel room - tomorrow we'll study Christianity and (more) Islam. Good night! 

A modern proverb on the wall.

Our guide Nasir

The Imam of the center at the lovely dinner.

RRE students in dialogue with the Imam

Nasir presenting a book by the founder of the Minhaj Ul Quran - a fatwa condemning suicide bombings and terrorism

/PD

Heia Oslo!

As I’m for the moment the only writer for the blog, this blog’s focus will be on the fourth RRE cycle, as that’s my study year. (Fifth cycle, do something about this! Let me know if you want to write for the blog, even if it’s just four times a year or so.)

So, what’s up with the fourth cycle? Well, most of us are preparing for a trip towards Norway’s capital, Oslo. From Wednesday to Saturday, we will have lectures in our compulsory course ‘The Three Religions in Contemporary Perspective’. Apart from work in the classroom, we will also visit a mosque and a synagogue – that is verily a contemporary perspective! 

It will also be our last official compact seminar, which could be a good moment for nostalgic reflections on how time has the awful tendency to fly…but let’s leave that for another blog. Sigh.

Instead, hereby a few ‘did-you-know-that’s’ about our destination and the RRE seminar for the coming week. Thanks be to Wikipedia.

Did you know that…

-          Oslo was founded around 1000 CE? (Alas, too late to be a study subject for RRE.)

-          Oslo was known by the beautiful name of Kristiania from the 17^th century until 1925?

-          Everybody has been telling me that Norway is so extremely expensive that I have already bought instant noodles to take with me?

-          You can see ‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch in Oslo’s Munch Museum?

-          Norway’s capital has about 620.000 inhabitants?

-          There is one (brave) student in the 4^th cycle in Oslo?

-          Norwegian and Swedish are so similar that it works to send a mail to the hostel where we will stay in Swedish?  

-          You might then actually have to read the mail three times to understand it?

-          Oslo yearly gives away large Christmas trees to several big cities in the world? A fun tradition, I think!

-          Oslo houses the National Theater, which is Norway’s largest theater?

-          The weather might bring anything from -2 to 7 Celsius during our stay? (http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Oslo/forecasts/latest)

  /PD