Members
Hannah M. Strømmen is Senior Lecturer in Bible, Politics, and Culture at Lund University, and leads the ‘Scripture and Secularism’ project.
Hannah’s research focuses on contemporary uses and interpretations of the Bible in philosophy, literature and politics. She is particularly interested in the way the Bible functions outside traditionally conceived religious spaces. In the ‘Scripture and Secularism’ project Hannah provides a major study of the role of scripture for conceptions of Europe as uniquely secular and Christian, focusing especially on how biblical texts are interpreted as foundational for the very idea of the ‘secular’.
Samuel Auler is a PhD student in New Testament Exegesis at Lund University.
Samuel’s primary research interest lies in the intersection of politics and religion, with a particular focus on the Global South. As part of the ‘Scripture and Secularism’ project, his work centers on a comparative analysis of how political actors in South America and Southern Europe utilize the Bible and the Qur’an in shaping political discourse and policy.
Joel Kuhlin is a Researcher in Bible, Politics, and Culture at Lund University.
Ever since European Enlightenment ideology helped kick-start the scientific scrutiny of the Bible and modern New Testament exegesis, questions of secularism have been entangled with academic interpretation of Holy Scripture. In Joel’s sub-project, he intends to analyze the ways in which current scholarship on the figure of Jesus and the canonical gospels, particularly in northern Europe, partakes in the epistemic context and expression of contemporary secularism.
Hanna Liljefors is a Researcher in Bible, Politics, and Culture at Lund University
Hanna’s research interests focus on how biblical texts are interpreted, depicted, and used in various parts of the public sphere, such as in the press or on social media. She is particularly interested in how bible-use creates legitimacy, identity, and reproduces relations of dominance. Within the project, she focuses on bible-use in Swedish political discourse.
Frida Mannerfelt is a Researcher in Bible, Politics, and Culture at Lund University
As a practical theologian, Frida is particularly interested in various kinds of individual and collective religious (Christian) practices from a theological perspective. In the Scripture and secularism project, she studies how churches and religious leaders contribute to the construction – and deconstruction – of ideas of a secular, democratic society or culture grounded in Christian heritage in contrast to the religious other.