Att läsa bibeln som om Gud inte fanns

Abstract

This retirement lecture at Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University is a methodological discussion of biblical exegesis in an academic setting, «reading the bible as if God did not exist». As God cannot be made a factor in historical or other research directed at biblical texts, academic exegesis must be agnostic, i.e., leave out ontological questions concering God. Sociology claims the ability to explain religious phenomena better than the believers do; W. Meeks’ hypothesis of status inconsistency as a cause for the conversion of socially prominent men in Pauline Christianity is an example. Theology, or reasoned faith, in its turn can easily fit sociological results into its theistic world-view. This operates with a «larger» reality, one where, for example, human love cannot be reduced to correct endocrinology and where God is seen as acting in, through and under ordinary human causality. The wider perspectives of believing scholars, even if working agnostically, add valuable perspectives to academic knowledge, and agnostic biblical research is of advantage also to the theology of faith communities.