Tomas Bokedal – författare

This book offers a fresh cross-disciplinary approach to the current discussion on the Christian canon formation process. By carefully integrating historical, hermeneutical and theological aspects to account for the emergence of the canon, it seeks to offer a more comprehensive picture of the canon development than has previously been achieved. The formation and continuous usage of the Christian biblical canon is here viewed as an act of literary preservation and actualization of the church's apostolic normative tradition - 'the Scriptures and the Lord' - addressing, first of all, the church, but also the wider society. In order to grasp the complex phenomenon of the biblical canon, the study is divided into four parts, focusing respectively on linguistic and effective-historical, textual and material, performative, and ideational aspects of the canon. Attention is given to the scribal nomina sacra convention, the codex format, oral and written Gospel, early Christian liturgical praxis and the Rule of Faith. Bokedal argues that the canon was formed in a process, with its own particular intention, history, and direction. Throughout the study, history and theology, past and present are considered alongside each other. By using a Gadamerian hermeneutics of tradition, the reader's attention is directed to historical dimensions of the canon and its interpretative possibilities for our time. The notion of effective history (Wirkungsgeschichte), as well as the interaction between text, community and reader are crucial to the argument. The canonical text as text, its interpretation and ritual contextualization are highlighted as unifying elements for the communities being addressed.

This book offers a fresh cross-disciplinary approach to the current discussion on the Christian canon formation process. By carefully integrating historical, hermeneutical and theological aspects to account for the emergence of the canon, it seeks to offer a more comprehensive picture of the canon development than has previously been achieved. The formation and continuous usage of the Christian biblical canon is here viewed as an act of literary preservation and actualization of the church's apostolic normative tradition - 'the Scriptures and the Lord' - addressing, first of all, the church, but also the wider society. In order to grasp the complex phenomenon of the biblical canon, the study is divided into four parts, focusing respectively on linguistic and effective-historical, textual and material, performative, and ideational aspects of the canon. Attention is given to the scribal nomina sacra convention, the codex format, oral and written Gospel, early Christian liturgical praxis and the Rule of Faith. Bokedal argues that the canon was formed in a process, with its own particular intention, history, and direction. Throughout the study, history and theology, past and present are considered alongside each other. By using a Gadamerian hermeneutics of tradition, the reader's attention is directed to historical dimensions of the canon and its interpretative possibilities for our time. The notion of effective history (Wirkungsgeschichte), as well as the interaction between text, community and reader are crucial to the argument. The canonical text as text, its interpretation and ritual contextualization are highlighted as unifying elements for the communities being addressed.

Scripture is a beautiful mosaic of Christ.In Christ the Center, Tomas Bokedal shows how the canon is shaped by numerical patterns of nomina sacra--scribal reverence for divine names. These patterns, which especially revolve around Christ, reveal the devotional and theological preoccupations of the earliest Christians. The rule of faith is not a later development; it is in the very text of Scripture. Christ the Center shows a remarkable interplay between Scripture and theology.

This book explores the emergence of the first bible, with particular focus on second-century Scripture, the earliest New Testament, and the canon formation process. The fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus, which contains the earliest extant complete New Testament, is used as a template to detect textual features of second- to fourth-century scripturality. What does this luxury manuscript, kept at the British Library, reveal about Christianity’s literary journey from oral gospel message to canonical text? What does it tell us about nascent Christianity as a “bookish” religious movement? A wide range of textual-interpretative, ritual, and paratextual aspects of the Christian Scriptures are discussed throughout the book as well as their impact on the wider Roman and Medieval literary cultures, and beyond.

The academic disciplines of Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology were long closely linked to one another. However, in the modern period they became gradually separated which led to increasing subject specialization, but also to a lamentable lacuna within the various branches of Divinity. As the lack of dialogue between Biblical Studies and the various theological disciplines increased, a minority-group of scholars in the past few decades reacted and sought to re-establish the time-honoured bonds between the disciplines. The present volume is part of this intellectual response, with contributions from scholars of various professional and denominational backgrounds. Together, the book's 25 chapters seek to reinvigorate the crucial cross-disciplinary dialogue, involving biblical, narrative, historical, systematic-theological and philosophic-theological perspectives. The book opens the horizon to contemporary research, and fills a lamentable research gap with a number of fresh contributions from scholars in the respective sub-disciplines

The relationship between science, scripture, and theology has been a longstanding and evolving debate. Often framed by Ian Barbour’s typology—conflict, independence, dialogue, and integration—this tension persists. The more constructive options of dialogue and integration have yet to deliver widely accepted solutions. This volume explores constructive solutions that address the perceived tension between science, on the one hand, and theology and religion, on the other, especially when the latter are committed to Scripture as an authority. The volume does not only collect insights from the long history of science and theology, but addresses new challenges arising from the recent pandemics, transhumanism, and the rise of artificial intelligence.This book collects contributions from authors of diverse geographic, cultural and denominational backgrounds. It offers new insights for scholars and advanced students in theology and religious studies, but also to researchers from other fields that want to advance the critical discourse between science and theology.

The academic disciplines of Biblical Studies and Systematic Theology were long closely linked to one another. However, in the modern period they became gradually separated which led to increasing subject specialization, but also to a lamentable lacuna within the various branches of Divinity. As the lack of dialogue between Biblical Studies and the various theological disciplines increased, a minority-group of scholars in the past few decades reacted and sought to re-establish the time-honoured bonds between the disciplines. The present volume is part of this intellectual response, with contributions from scholars of various professional and denominational backgrounds. Together, the book's 25 chapters seek to reinvigorate the crucial cross-disciplinary dialogue, involving biblical, narrative, historical, systematic-theological and philosophic-theological perspectives. The book opens the horizon to contemporary research, and fills a lamentable research gap with a number of fresh contributions from scholars in the respective sub-disciplines