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From the History of Religions to the Study of Religion in Denmark: an Essay on the Subject, Organizational History and Research Themes

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From the History of Religions to the Study of Religion in Denmark: an Essay on the Subject, Organizational History and Research Themes From the History of Religions to the Study of Religion in Denmark: An Essay on the Subject, Organizational History and Research Themes TIM JENSEN & ARMIN W. GEERTZ University of Southern Denmark & Aarhus University Abstract The history of the academic study of religion in Denmark resembles developments in other Nordic and European countries as it has moved from a primarily historical-philological and comparative ‘history of religions’ towards a broader ‘study of religion(s)’ that includes his- tory of religions together with theories and methods from a wide variety of the human, social and today also natural sciences. Uppsala University was one of the three main centers of positivism at the end of the 19th century, and its influence was evident and long-lasting also in Denmark. By the end of the 1970s, debates and reflections on methods and theories slowly began to have a greater impact, and from the mid-80s and especially mid-90s, also due to conscious efforts not least in Aarhus, methodological issues gained in importance. A turn towards contemporary religion also became evident. Today it may be claimed that a kind of balance has been achieved whereby historical and empirical studies of religions go hand in hand with theoretical and methodological reflections, and where a balance between, on the one hand, more classical comparative history of religions materials and approaches, and, on the other hand, new and different areas of research, and new and different approaches and theories are of equal importance. With regard to individual research, research programs, and study programs, the history of the history of religions in Denmark cannot be described in detail here. This article presents the broad pic- ture of important developments within and across the three Danish universities that have study of religion departments. Although the early histories are briefly touched upon, the focus will be on the past 50 years, from about 1960 until 2014, thus roughly the same period that Temenos has been in existence. Keywords: Study of Religion, Denmark Drawing a detailed picture of the development from a more classical ‘his- tory of religions’ into what today is called the broader ‘study of religion(s)’, even if the focus is only on the past 50 years, is a vast and difficult task. The same goes for the more modest task of outlining the characteristics of © The Finnish Society for the Study of Religion Temenos Vol. 50 No. 1 (2014), 79–113 80 TIM JENSEN & ARMIN W. GEERTZ the study of religion in Denmark during that period.1 In this article, we introduce the three universities that offer the study of religion in Denmark: Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense. We have been highly selective, and the omission of many names of individual scholars and of most of their many publications is solely due to the limits of space here. Most publication ref- erences nowadays can be found at the relevant websites of the universities where the scholars are employed, and we therefore refer the reader to those websites. Institutional matters and changes are closely linked to changes within the study of religion, and thus will also be touched upon together with developments in study programs, individual and collective research initiatives, publications including journals, (more or less) learned societies as well as the characteristics and strong links between the study of religion and the teaching of Religion in the Danish upper-secondary schools (called Gymnasium in Danish). The story of the study of religion in Denmark does not begin with the establishment of a chair or a department at the University of Copenhagen. Many prominent scholars with importance for the academic study of religion did not and still do not have positions at a department for the study of religion but at other faculties, departments, or institutes. Our story, however, will begin with the chair in Copenhagen, and by and large we will limit ourselves to developments within the institutionalized study of religions departments. University of Copenhagen At the University of Copenhagen,2 the history of religions first became a university subject with the establishment of a Readership in the Faculty of Philosophy in 1900. Inspired by the establishment of similar chairs at the 1 The following draws heavily on Johansen 1979, Institut for Religionshistorie 1985, Nørr & Jensen 1981, Nørr 1981, Stenbæk 1980 & 1981, Bilde 1981, Smidt Hansen 1985, Geertz 1985, 1995 & 1996, Tybjerg 1996 & 2010, Jensen 2002, Geertz & Jensen 2003. The name religionsvidenskab, used in Aarhus and Copenhagen, literally means ‘science of religion’, but is meant by its prac- titioners to mean ‘study of religion’, while religionsstudier, the name used in Odense, literally means ‘religious studies’, but is understood by its practitioners as ‘study of religions’, in the plural. In general, it can be argued that omission of the ‘s’ indicates that the main aim is the study of a theoretical object called ‘religion’, while the inclusion of the plural ‘s’ indicates a more historical study of various religions. However, in reality this is not always so. The same can be said about the EASR (European Association for the Study of Religions), the Danish As- sociation for the Study of Religions, and the IAHR (International Association for the History of Religions), where the ‘s’ does not indicate a lack of interest in the theoretical object ‘religion’ and thus religion in general. 2 The University was founded in 1479. ... TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION IN DENMARK 81 major universities in Europe, the Faculty thought it a good idea to host the scientific investigation of what was at the time called ‘the spiritual life of mankind’ (‘det menneskelige Åndsliv’ – Tybjerg 1996, 23; 2010, 241ff.). The position was awarded to Edvard Lehmann (1862–1930), whose major work was a two-volume book on Zarathustra.3 Lehmann left Copenhagen for a chair in Berlin in 1910. The Readership in Copenhagen was taken the next year by Vilhelm Grønbech (1873–1948) who already in 1912 published his three-volume book on the Old Norse religion. On the basis of that opus, Grønbech was called to the chair in Leipzig, but the University of Copenha- gen then established a full Professorship for him, which he accepted in 1915. Grønbech has had a considerable impact on the study of religion in Denmark (see Tybjerg 2010, 267 ff.). His approach was a blend of histori- cal and philological textual studies and a (claimed) intuitive empathy (via the reading of the texts). His publications were numerous and voluminous and covered a large number of topics.4 His impact also extended to broader cultural issues in which he engaged in writings aimed at a wider public. The same year Lehmann left for Berlin, a number of church communities in Copenhagen worked towards the establishment of a university educa- tion in Christian Studies (Kristendomskundskab) for teachers of Religion in the gymnasium (upper-secondary school).5 Their goal was to improve the pedagogical and scholastic quality of teaching in Christianity, which was the subject being taught in the schools at the time. Many of the young theolo- gians and priests teaching at the time had great pedagogic and disciplinary problems – and not all of them were as devout as the church communities 3 Lehmann 1899–1902. His international breakthrough, however, came with the German, Dutch, English and Swedish translations (during the period 1908–1915) of a book on mysticism in heathen and Christian contexts. See also Sand & Sørensen 2001. 4 Topics ranged from mysticism to Hellenism and Christianity as well as literary figures in England and Germany. See Grønbech 1909–1912, 1913, 1915, 1922, 1932–1934, 1935, 1940a, 1940b, 1941, 1942 & 1944–1945. There are a growing number of studies on his influence and thought, and in 1994 a Grønbech Society was established to encourage studies of his influence on Danish science and culture. See Tybjerg 1996 and 2010 for references to publications on the work of Grønbech. 5 While the subject in the upper-secondary schools was named Religion, the names given to the university subject and study program as well to the department or institute housing or ad- ministering the subject have been many – and the name of the subject has not always remained the same as that of the department or institute. In the following, we make mention of some of the changes in name(s), concentrating, however, on the development of the subject and study program away from being a kind of ‘mini-theology’ towards a ‘mini-study-of-religions’ subject. 82 TIM JENSEN & ARMIN W. GEERTZ wanted them to be.6 But the Ministry of Culture (Kultusministeriet) was not interested in promoting the Christian goals of the movement, and wanted the history of religions to be integrated into the educational program, and the Ministry also asked the Faculty of Theology to reorganize its educa- tional program so that theological students could receive a more humanist education. These initiatives rankled a large number of religious interest groups, and it took several years before the new educational program was established. The Ministry did not succeed in their two-fold goal, but they did succeed, if not entirely and immediately, in severing Christian Studies from Church influence. The educational program established in 1912 was based on an uneasy cooperation between the Faculty of Theology and the Faculty of Philosophy. The program was under the auspices of the Faculty of Philosophy, but the four theological disciplines (Old Testament, New Testament, Systematic Theology and Church History) were taught by professors from the Faculty of Theology, whereas the courses in the history of religions were taught by the chair at the Faculty of Philosophy. Unfortunately, the students had no real place of their own in this uneasy alliance, and, more importantly, only they (as opposed to their teachers) were in the position to attempt a synthesis of these diverse disciplines.
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