The composition of the network:

The composition of the network:

The network consists of four types of sub-groups: 1) local research projects that have received national funding or are in the process of applying for it, and 2) local post-graduate training groups, directed by senior researchers. The team leaders of these sub-groups are either project/institution leaders or professors responsible for the local PhD training. There are also 3) senior researchers and doctoral students whose personal research interests are in the subject area of the network, although they are not currently leading (or studying as PhD students in) local research projects associated with the network. This group is listed separately as one sub-group of the network (Group N). The senior scholars of this group will provide an important pool of teachers for the workshops.

The list is in alphabetical order (country, university). Some researchers are involved with several research groups. They are listed in all of them but counted only once in the statistics.

Aarhus University

GROUP A

Cooperation with the Laboratory on Theories of Religion and the Religion, Cognition and Culture Research Unit, RCC (Aarhus)

Team leader: Anders Klostergaard Petersen, associate professor
Institution: Aarhus University
Faculty: Theology
Department: Study of Religion
E-mail address: akp@teo.au.dk

The participants are with a single exception employed at the Department of the Study of Religion, where two groups are involved: the Laboratory on Theories of Religion and the Religion, Cognition and Culture (RCC) Research Unit. Also included are specialists in early Judaism and Christianity. Thus Anders Klostergaard Petersen (leader of this group and Department Chair) is specialist in both early Judaism and Christianity as well as, cognitive theories, ritual theories and theories of religion in general. Hans J.L. Jensen is specialist in Old Testament studies and theories of religion, Marianne Schleicher in Judaism and theories of gender, Marie Vejrup Nielsen in Christianity and evolutionary theories, Kirstine Helboe Johansen in modern Christianity and cognitive theories of ritual.

The rest of the group is connected directly to the RCC. Armin W. Geertz works with ecstatic behavior, evolutionary theories and narrative. Jeppe Sinding Jensen works with the cognitive science of religion from a philosophy of science perspective and is interested in top-down processes which he calls normative cognition. Jesper Sørensen works with religious rituals and magic and is interested in agency and intention in ritual actions and in experimental approaches. Uffe Schjødt works with neurobiological studies of prayer and charisma and with experimental approaches. Dimitris Xygalatas works with firewalking rituals in various geographical contexts and experimental approaches. Gabriel Levy works with Judaism and the cognition of literacy. Panagiotis Mitkidis works with Hellenistic religions, systems theories and social network theories. Else-Marie Jegindø works with pain and religious ritual from a neurobiological and anthropological perspective and experimental approaches. Jesper Østergaard works with pilgrimage rituals and the topography of the mind and semiotics. Kristoffer Laigaard Nielbo works with computer simulations of ritual interactions and with systems theories. Lars Madsen works with the cognitive science of religion from a philosophy of science perspective, especially Wittgenstein.

The University of Copenhagen

GROUP B

Naturalism and Christian Semantics: Centre of Excellence, the University of Copenhagen, 2008-2013

Team leader: Troels Engberg-Pedersen, Professor
Institution: The University of Copenhagen
Faculty: The Faculty of Theology
E-mail address: tep@teol.ku.dk

The centre was established in 2008 by a grant from the Rector of the University of Copenhagen. The centre has two principal investigators: Troels Engberg-Pedersen, who is formally responsible for the centre as a whole, and who directs the ancient part of the project; and Niels Henrik Gre¬gersen (Professor of Systematic Theology), who directs the modern part of the project. The centre aims to analyse to what extent naturalistic approaches to Christianity (a) have been adopted into Christian theology in the first two centuries up until Origen (in the form of input from ancient philosophy of a naturalistic kind, primarily Stoicism) and (b) can be adopted into Christian theology in the contemporary world (as exemplified in the modern field of science and religion).

Åbo Akademi University

GROUP C

Team leader: Kari Syreeni, Professor
Institution: Åbo Akademi University
Department: Faculty of Theology
E-mail address kari.syreeni@abo.fi

The Åbo Akademi University research group includes a senior researcher (Syreeni), a postdoctoral researcher (Mika Hietanen) and a doctoral student (Linda Joelsson), all of whom are New Testament scholars with a study interest in the social psychological interface between cognition and religion. Syreeni's study focuses on the cognitive rationale of early Christian moral exhortation, especially in the Sermon on the Mount. Hietanen, a specialist in the fields of rhetorical criticism and argumentation analysis, examines the creation and maintenance of group cohesion in the speeches delivered in a charismatic Christian movement (the Nokia mission). Joelsson studies the symbolic management of death in the Pauline letters using Kenneth Pargament's psychology-of-religion model of various coping mechanisms.

University of Eastern Finland

GROUP D

Social-rhetorical Analysis and Cognitive Linguistics

Team leader: Lauri Thurén, Professor
Institution: University of Eastern Finland
E-mail address: Lauri.Thuren@uef.fi

The group focuses on socio-rhetorical analysis and cognitive linguistics as tools for understanding social identities and moral behavior in Early Christian communities. The particular studies contribute to the overall theme in different ways, both by developing methodology and with new information about the situation in different Early Christian groups.

Professor Thurén is a specialist of rhetorical and argumentation analysis. He has also published several monographs and articles on the ethical motivation in Early Christian communities, especially in First Peter. He will continue to study the interaction between the implied recipients of the Epistle and their fellow citizens. The next article will discuss the astonishingly positive role of the Devil in 1 Pet 5:8 as the official accuser in Gods courtroom.

Antti Kurkola studies the first Christians social status as outsiders especially in 1 Peter and other New Testament texts by using Vernon Robbins socio-rhetorical model. Gerson Mgaya also utilizes Robbins socio-rhetorical approach in order to illuminate the issue about spiritual gifts in First Corinthians. In this task, Thuréns derhetorization will be utilized, too. Määttä studies the parable of the Unjust Servant (Luke 16:115) with a narrative critical approach. The methodology is based on the studies by Booth, Chatman, genet and Bar-Efrat. Leena Hartus studies the problems attached to current translation theories. Nidasinfluential and widely accepted theory of functional equivalence has already been rejected but no other all-encompassingtheory is in sight. However, Nidas basic idea about the equivalencies will be developed into several directions.

Other doctoral students who would benefit from the seminar include: Kaisa Puustinen: The Ultimate Translations Childrens Bibles in the light of modern translation theories. Hanne Janhonen: The Meaning of the Word diakonos in the New Testament. Pekka Jauhiainen: Apostle Paul in Christ - Participatory Fole Mode.

University of Helsinki

GROUP E

Explaining Early Jewish and Christian Movements: Ritual, Memory and Identity

Team leader: Petri Luomanen, Professor (acting)
Institution: University of Helsinki
E-mail address: petri.luomanen@helsinki.fi

The multifaceted character of both Judaism and Christianity has become increasingly clear in recent decades. It follows that in order to understand the development of these religions we cannot simply trace the history of two unified trajectories, Judaism and Christianity. Instead, we must address the question how religious identities and traditions were formed and transmitted among competing smaller groups and factions. This project seeks to cast light on this question by drawing on the recent developments in the field of the cognitive study of religion and social psychology (the social identity approach). If there are regularities in religious behavior and community formation, it is worth of exploring to which extent the explanation lies in the basic structures of human cognition.

The studies conducted in this project provide examples of different Jewish and Christian movements from the second century BCE to the fourth century CE: the Qumran movement, the Pharisees, the movement around John the Baptist, different strands of the early Jesus movement, Pauline communities, Jewish Christianity, and Valentinian and Gnostic movements. The project has focused on tracing common features in these movements in the three key areas of their religiosity: religious rituals, the formation and transmission of religious memories (social memory), and the formation of religious self- and collective identities.

The Academy of Finland funding for the project will end at the end of 2010. However, related themes will be studied in the following four new projects (sub-groups F-I), directed by the members of this project.

GROUP F

Enemies in the Making: "Others" and the Construction of Early Christian Identities

Team leader: Raimo Hakola, University researcher
Institution: University of Helsinki
Faculty: Faculty of Theology
E-mail address: raimo.hakola@helsinki.fi

The team applies social psychological and sociological theories to canonical and non-canonical literature in order to appreciate the complexity of social group processes embedded in this literature. Theories addressing the cognitive and motivational basis of social stereotypes help to understand better the early Christian polemic and, therefore, make it possible to give polemized and marginalized others a fair hearing in the study of Christianity. Several team members apply the social identity approach, The team also applies the theories of deviance and marginalization and the sociology of the stranger.

The head of the project, Raimo Hakola, explains the role of the Gospel of John in the rise of Christian anti-Judaism by focusing on the reception of Johns portrait of the Jews and Judaism in early Christian authors. Other members of the team highlight such principal aspects in the formation of Christianity as the debates over resurrection in the construction and struggles for identity in early Christianity (Outi Lehtipuu), the function and role of Pauls opponents (Nina Pehkonen), the development ofidentity and prejudice in the post-Pauline Christianities (Minna Shkul), Christians as others in earliest Roman accounts (NikoHuttunen, and the gospel of Peter and development of anti-Judaism (Mika Hynninen). The team has received funding from Academy of Finland for the period 1.1. 2010-31.12 2013.

GROUP G

The Qumran Movement

Team leader: Jutta Jokiranta, University lecturer
Institution: University of Helsinki
Faculty: Faculty of Theology
E-mail address: jutta.jokiranta@helsinki.fi

The Dead Sea Scrolls (or Qumran texts) contain an enormous amount of crucial first-hand evidence from the late Second Temple period (c. 200 BCE70CE). In the recent years, understandings of the Jewish movement that produced the scrolls have become to a turning point. No longer is the Qumran community seen as one remote and withdrawn sect. Instead, more and more variety in the movement is acknowledged, local communities are considered to be a significant element in the movement, and different views about changes in the movement are more clearly formulated and identified. Social-scientific perspectives are vital in this situation. Sociologically informed understanding of the phenomena in religious groups is required to facilitate discussion about the nature of Qumranic groups and to pose new critical questions about underlying assumptions. The conviction in this project is that the Qumran texts can not only bring light to different groups and their relations in Second Temple period, but also to the social changes of the time.

This project aims both to bring into light several processes of chance and illuminate the relevance of such information for our understanding of the period at large.

• The understanding of the redactional processes of the central Qumran texts is an important aspect of change. Different sources and layers are connected to different social settings, and editorial markers are often important markers of changes in the social circumstances.
• The Qumran library contains a rich corpus of texts that illuminate various rituals and changes in ritual life of ancient Judaism. The project will address both individual rituals and their role in the Qumran movement as well as the wider question of how the ritual life of the movement is to be understood against the changes of the second and first centuries BCE. Cognitive science of religion is a new promising field of research which will be of special importance in this task.
• The project will address some of the changes in the traditions transmitted in this period. The increase of literature, recording and careful study testified by the Scrolls is exemplary of the rise of literacy and new systematic ways of thinking during this period. An important inquiry will concern the changes in the traditions about female figures in the literature of the Second Temple period that can help to better understand the role of women in general and in the Qumran movement in particular. Hanna Tervanotko is writing her dissertation on the tradition of the figure of Miriam and its transmission in texts of the Second Temple Judaism.

GROUP H

Moral Communities, Past and Present

Team leader: Petri Luomanen, Professor (acting)
Institution: University of Helsinki
Faculty: Faculty of Theology
E-mail address: petri.luomanen@helsinki.fi

The group analyzes the role of biblical traditions in the formation and development of past and present moral communities. It is hotly debated what role religious doctrines and moral norms played in the spread of early Christianity. The unique role of religion as a factor in creating and sustaining morality and pro-social behavior has been both questioned and affirmed in recent scholarship. The two main themes the group will explore are 1) pro-social behavior and religious networking, and 2) poverty and social care. Christian doctrine and morality will be examined as factors that may have given early Christian communities a selective advantage and thus explain the spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire before the fourth century CE. The group takes into account the results of recent empirical research in social and behavioral sciences, conducts pioneering research on the so-called network theory, and uses computer simulation in the study of networks.

As for the second theme, the group seeks to show how attitudes towards poverty and social care in early Christianity build upon Jewish tradition, Members of the group will also conduct field research in Bolivia and Tanzania, and among Palestinians, to explore how present-day people representing different classes and ethnic backgrounds understand Biblical texts related to wealth and poverty. The group will cooperate with a practical theologian (Anne-Birgitta Pessi) specialized in altruism and religions.

GROUP I

Ritual in the Biblical World and Late Antiquity

Team leader: Risto Uro, University Lecturer
Institution: University of Helsinki
Faculty: Faculty of Theology
E-mail address: risto.uro@helsinki.fi

In biblical, classical and religious studies, rituals have gained increasing prominence recently. In classical studies, there is a growing interest in the study of cult archaeology, ritual and social differentiation in the public religion and among the private cult communities in the Greco-Roman world. In religious studies, ritual theorizing has become a focus of intense scholarly work during the last few decades. Above all, the cognitive science of religion, a new field within religious studies, has generated a number of new theories of rituals, which are currently being tested against a wide variety of empirical, ethnographical, archaeological and historical materials. In the situation in which ritual has become a nexus of a number of different fields, interdisciplinary cooperation among historians of Judaism, Christianity and other Greco-Roman religions and scholars of religion offers much promise.

The group seeks 1) to investigate ritual behavior in a selected number of movements, groups and cults in the Greco-Roman world, such as the Qumran movement, various early Christian groups, and non-Christian oriental cults in the city of Rome; 2) to theoretically elaborate various types of ritual behavior and ritual actions, such as calendrical, purification, sacrificial and healing rites as well as ritual meals, dancing, space and hymns; 3) to test the usefulness of recent anthropological and cognitive theories for the study of ancient rituals; and 4) to compare cross-culturally ritual systems and ritual dynamics as evinced in the case studies by the group members and in ethnographic studies of present-day religious movements.

GROUP J

Modeling Religious Systems: Early Christianity as a Test Case

Team leader: István Czachesz, Adjunct Professor of New Testament
Institution: University of Heidelberg
E-mail address: istvan.czachesz@helsinki.fi

The immediate objective of the current project is to use computer modeling to provide new explanations of the development of early Christianity. We have selected two particular aspects as test cases. The first study focuses on the successful propagation of Christianity as a religious innovation on social net-works. The second study deals with the phenomenon of costly signaling as a successful strategy for cooperation in early Christian groups. Our objective is to create computer models of these phenomena, test our research hypotheses using the models, and derive conclusions for further research. The case studies are described in detail in section 4.1 of the proposal. The project further has the long-term objective of demonstrating the fruitfulness of using agent-based computer modeling to study the dynamics of religious systems, in general, and applying such an approach to the study of early Christianity, in particular. If the project is successful in demonstrating the potential of our approach, the team will design a larger research project to extend the scope of investigation to a larger sample of religious traditions. Introducing computer modeling to religious studies and biblical studies as an established research tool is an important long-term goal of the team.

In terms of our hypothesis, religious innovation can be seen as the transformation of a cultural system, initiated by external stress or internal disturbances: the introduction of a new idea, a new connection between existing beliefs, a new ritual, text or artifact initiates changes in peoples belief systems, social networks, and ultimately changes in other aspects of religion. On the basis of earlier studies in complex systems, it can be predicted that the network structure of the religious system will play a decisive role in the propagation of impulses. We predict that the long-term success of religious innovations will require a trade-off between stability and flexibility.

The method used in this project is computer modeling, particularly in the framework of network theory. Modeling religious systems as networks will allow researchers to make quantitative observations about religious innovation in peoples belief systems, social networks, and other components of religion. We will carry out four case studies in order to test our working hypothesis and develop detailed quantitative models of the success and failure of religions and religious innovations. The researchers will focus on two case studies. In Study 1, we will use agent-based modeling to examine the interaction of religious teachings and social networks. Agents will move around, make friends, and exchange messages. We will observe how moral teachings changing agents behavior affect social networks and how religions grow in the population under different circumstances. Starting out with these networks, we will observe which further, previously unknown characteristics of these networks emerge, and we will examine the effect of various changes on the networks, such as growth by adding new converts, the increase of the number of women (who have different networking styles than men; see below), the change in social attitudes, differences between urban and rural settings, or the ways sedentary and itinerant members of the community interact.

In Study 2, we will analyze the functioning of costly signaling in early Christian religion and use information gained from historical sources to adapt the modeling tools developed in Study 1 in order to examine under which conditions costly signaling can be a successful strategy of cooperation. The theory of costly signaling explains collective rituals and other religious behavior as a means of maintaining communal stability and group cohesion. In terms of costly signaling theory, religion provides significant motivation to accept high costs: for example, costs are required by divine commandment, will be compensated in the afterlife, defectors will be punished, etc. We will use evolutionary game theory to capture the dymanics of costly signaling on social networks.

Materials for studying the religious system of early Christianity consist of published textual and archeological evidence. The models will be built on the NetLogo platform, an intuitive, versatile and freely available agent-based modeling environment.

University of Iceland

GROUP K

Team leader: Jón Ma. Ásgeirsson, Professor
Institution: University of Iceland
Department: Chair Program in New Testament Studies and Early Christianity
E-mail address: jmaa@hi.is

As regards the subject area of the network, the research of the leader of the team has points of contact especially in the areas of philosophy of religion, phenomenology and semantics. The leader also has growing interest in the areas of psychology and neuroscience. Among the students of the program there are at least three who would benefit from the proposed Network: Sigurvin Jonsson, who is writing on the Image of Masculinity in the Context of the Persona of James in the Pseudo-Clementines; Magnus Erlingsson, who is working on the Gospel of Mary from the Perspective of Gender and Society; and Helgi Gudjonsson, who is starting his comparative work on meals in Judaism and Christianity.

Norwegian School of Theology

GROUP L

Unorthodox Orthodoxy

Team leader: Liv Ingeborg Lied, AssociatePprofessor
Position: Associate Professor in Religious Studies
Institution: Norwegian School of Theology
Department: Department of Religion and Pedagogy
E-mail address: Liv.i.lied@mf.no

This sub-group will be associated with the planned researcher project of Lied and Lundhaug, Unorthodox Orthodoxy: Pseudepigraphy, Ritual and Authority in Coptic and Syriac Monastic Milieus in Late Antique and Medieval Egypt. The project will apply for funding by the Norwegian Research Council in June 2010. The Norwegian School of Theology will administer the project and Lied will be its group leader. The project will consist of a small core group (including PhD-students) and a larger group of advisors. The empirical focus of the planned project is writings from Coptic and Syriac monastic milieus in Egypt that transmit or cite pseudepigraphical or apocryphal writings or traditions authoritatively, as well as negative reactions against such use. The project will take particular interest in texts as they have been preserved in actual manuscripts, and their use in Coptic and Syriac monastic milieus within the context of monastic reading practices, including their use in ritual/liturgical contexts, as lectionaries, homilies, liturgical poetry etc.

The project will explore the production, use and transmission of unorthodox cultural memory in orthodox monastic milieus, including the function of pseudepigraphical attibution (to patristic as well as biblical figures), the possible ways in which ritual/liturgical use may create scriptural authority, and the constant negotiation of the boundaries between orthodoxy and heresy. The project brings together expertise in Syriology and Coptology and will draw on recent theoretical approaches in the fields of Ritual Studies, the study of Cultural Memory, and Cognitive Poetics.

Stockholm School of Theology

GROUP M

Emotion, Behaviour and Identity in Biblical and Cognate Texts

Team leader: Thomas Kazen, Professor
Institution: Stockholm School of Theology
E-mail address: thomas.kazen@ths.se

This is a new research team, focused on the role of emotions for ritual and moral behaviour, as well as for social identity. Human emotions are biologically based but culturally shaped and can thus be explored with the help of cognitive sciences, such as evolutionary biology, primatology, neuroscience and developmental psychology. Insights from such fields can be used as heuristic tools for analysing ancient texts, biblical and cognate, in which human behaviours and identities are expressed. Emotions play a crucial role in legal, exhortatory and paraenetic texts, including some ritual instructions, which at times can be very emotive. The modern dichotomy between morality and ritual often becomes anachronistic when applied to ancient material. The study of emotions is useful for mapping out the causes and motives behind human behaviour, whether moral or ritual, as reflected in ancient texts. Our approach can thus contribute to the analysis of law and legal development as well as to ritual studies.

Emotions also figure behind processes of configuring and negotiating identity. Hence the study of emotions can expand and further develop social identity theories. The research team will especially focus on emotional aspects of acceptance, forgiveness, reconciliation and revenge, which are important for coping with interpersonal tension and help to build social identities and further group cohesion.

The research team consists of five members and has specialist competence to work on such diverse texts as legal collections, Qumran texts, gospel material, Pauline letters and post-Pauline epistles.

Other institutes

GROUP N

Senior scholars and PhD students associated with the network
Team leader: The steering group

Participants:

University of Copenhagen:
Anne Katrine de Hemmer Gudme (PhD student; ritual, votive offerings, theory)
Geert Hallbäck (associate professor; Mark, semiotics, literary theory, cognitive science and religion)
Jesper Tang Nielsen (associate professor; John, apocryphal literature, semiotics, literary theory)

University of Oslo/Aarhus University:
Kristen Marie Hartvigsen (post-doc; cognitive poetics)

University of Lund:
Samuel Byrskog (professor; social memory, identity)
Johanna Broselid (PhD student; ritual, memory)

Örebro school of theology/University of Lund:
Mikael Tellbe (associate professor; social identity)