Preliminary Programme

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Thursday 13 April 2023 16.30 - 18.30
M-8 REL08 Religious Books: Censorship and Innovation
C32
Network: Religion Chair: Jakob Evertsson
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Urban Claesson : Household(s) in Nordic Catechisms - Variations upon a Theme by Luther
How was the household taught in early modern Denmark and Sweden - and why was this done in so many differing ways? Luther’s comments upon the fourth commandment in his Small Catechism along with the table of duties reveal how the household was formulated in general Nordic education of the ... (Show more)
How was the household taught in early modern Denmark and Sweden - and why was this done in so many differing ways? Luther’s comments upon the fourth commandment in his Small Catechism along with the table of duties reveal how the household was formulated in general Nordic education of the early modern era. This paper, presenting research funded by the Swedish Research Foundation "Riksbankens jubileumsfond", focus upon differences in various expositions of the Lutheran catechism published in different Dioceses in Denmark-Norway and Sweden-Finland during the 17:th century. In contrast to other spiritual books that were often translated from German, Nordic authors mainly wrote these explanations themselves. The authors were often bishops, producing these textbooks as ways of coping with challenges of everyday life that they faced in their dioceses. My main question is; how was the household presented in different expositions of Luther’s Small Catechism? The results of my research show variations between textbooks within the Nordic Realm concerning how to keep a household together. In this paper I link those differences to various historical patterns of societal change focusing upon differing regional prerequisites for the legitimization of Authority. (Show less)

John Wood : Making the Word New (again): the Bible for Today (1941) and “Modern” Christianity
In the summer of 1941, in the midst of the Second World War, Oxford University Press published The Bible for Today, a new edition of the Bible that sought to make its meaning relevant in a rapidly changing modern context.

“A new approach is needed in these days”, its editors ... (Show more)
In the summer of 1941, in the midst of the Second World War, Oxford University Press published The Bible for Today, a new edition of the Bible that sought to make its meaning relevant in a rapidly changing modern context.

“A new approach is needed in these days”, its editors suggested: “Men cannot now read the Bible as their fathers did, with simple and unquestioning faith.” Both modern critical scholarship and the conditions of modern industrial and technologised culture and society, it was argued, were conspiring to distance mid-twentieth-century British society from the “common and universal” messages in Christianity’s most sacred text.

The strategy employed in this edition to connect the Bible to modern life lay not in any alterations of the main text, which was the standard “Authorized Version” (“King James Bible”) used widely in the Anglican Communion. Instead, what is interesting here is the way the biblical contents were framed: first, through short introductory texts that often drew connections to modern contexts and, second, through striking illustrations provided by a team supervised by prominent British artist Rowland Hilder (who also worked extensively with the Ministry of Information on wartime propaganda).

The book generated a substantial and largely positive response in the Christian press.

In my paper, I show how these framing strategies sought to make Christian messages relevant to what were at the time seen as the changed conditions of mid-twentieth-century modernity. I also demonstrate how this particular book emerged within a wider discussion among British Christians across the 1930s about how “modern” conditions in culture and society – particularly technology and growing state power – meant that sacred certainties had to be made newly relevant in order to regain their power. Such efforts were, of course, not unprecedented: while “sacred” texts are typically presumed to be timeless, they have always been framed and understood within particular historical contexts. Through my examination of The Bible for Today, I hope to add to the historiography of how British Christians responded to the challenges of totalitarianism, social change and global war in the 1930s and 1940s. More broadly, I hope to contribute to the growing interest in how early 20th century Christianity sought to adapt to – and to contribute to shaping – what was seen at the time as a fundamental transformation of European (and, more broadly, Western) ways of life. (Show less)



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