Anders Klostergaard Petersen

1995-98 Carlsberg stipend at the Eberhard-Karls Universität, Tübingen. 1998-2002 Assistant professor in New Testament studies, Aarhus University. 2002-2012 Associate professor in the Study of Religion, Aarhus University. 2012-2020 Professor with special assignments in the Study of Religion, Aarhus University. 2020- Associate professor in the Study of Religion, Aarhus University. Petersen writes on early Christ-religion, Second Temple Judaism, Graeco-Roman philosophy, matters relating to philosophy of science in the general study of religion. In recent years, he has worked extensively on biocultural evolution and emotional research. His most recent book is co-authored with Jonathan H. Turner, Alexandra Maryanski, and Armin W. Geertz on The Emergence and Evolution of Religion: By Means of Natural Selection. Routledge 2018. He is editor, co-editor, and advisory board member of several international journals.

 

Formative Christ-Religion as an Example of a Resilient Type of Religion within Israel Religion

Hardly any scholars, I surmise, would think of early Christ-religion in terms of resilience. Although few people today consider it a new religion as regards its emergence, it is nevertheless understood by most scholars as a novelty within Israel religion. In this lecture, I turn tables 180 degrees around in order to tease out the analytical advantage of scrutinising formative Christ religion from the perspective of resilience, i.e. in bio-cultural evolutionary terms. Do we gain anything theoretically, in terms of modelling, and with respect to understanding of the phenomenon under examination, by studying it as a token of religious resilience? It may well be that it is a fixed idea only, but I want to risk my neck by pursuing the question in applying a resilience view on a form of religion, which as a default assumption is faintly understood in such terms.