Forgotten Roots of the Nordic Welfare State in Protestant Cultures
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Book Series
Aesthetics of Protestantism in Northern Europe, vol. 1
Aesthetics of Protestantism in Northern Europe
Exploring the Field
Joachim Grage, Thomas Mohnike, Lena Rohrbach (eds)
- Pages: 260 p.
- Size:178 x 254 mm
- Illustrations:23 b/w, 11 col., 2 tables b/w.
- Language(s):English
- Publication Year:2022
- € 80,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-60160-1
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- € 80,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
- ISBN: 978-2-503-60161-8
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The history and cultures of the Nordic countries are strongly influenced by Protestantism, which has been the dominant religion in Scandinavia since the Reformation. But how is this influence reflected aesthetically? What effects has Protestantism had, from its inception until the present day, on the production and reception of literature and art?
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Review(s)
« ...Aesthetics of Protestantism in Northern Europe jette des bases importantes pour comprendre l’intersection de la religion et de l’esthétique en Europe du Nord, en soulignant l’impact profond de la première sur la seconde. Il constitue en cela une référence précieuse pour des recherches ultérieures sur les intersections entre religion, culture et esthétique en Europe du Nord. » (Aymeric Pantet, dans Archives de sciences sociales des religions, 208, 2024)
BIO
Joachim Grage is professor of Scandinavian Studies at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg.
Thomas Mohnike is professor of Scandinavian Studies at the Université de Strasbourg.
Lena Rohrbach is professor of Scandinavian Studies at the Universities of Basel and Zurich.
Summary
This book explores the aesthetic consequences of Protestantism in Scandinavia. Fourteen case studies from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century discuss five abstract and trans-historical principles that characterize Scandinavian aesthetics and that arguably derive from Protestant thinking and practice, namely: simplicity, logocentrism, tension between pronounced individualism and collectivism, relatedness to the world, and ethics. The contributions address the peculiar aesthetics of Scandinavian print, literature, architecture, film, and opera and reflect on the influence of Protestant traditions on the establishment of genres and writing practices.
This volume is the first in a new series that will focus on the aesthetics of Protestantism in Scandinavia, both theoretically and through exemplary individual analyses.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Joachim Grage, Thomas Mohnike, Lena Rohrbach, Aesthetics of Protestantism in Northern Europe. Introductory Investigations
Jürg Glauser, The Aesthetics of Protestant Rhetoric: Early Reformation Polemic in Denmark
Margrét Eggertsdóttir, The Value and Importance of Poetry in the Vernacular
Ueli Zahnd, Which Protestants? Calvinism, Crypto-Calvinism, and the Scandinavian Reformation
Lena Rohrbach, Access to the Word of God. Language, Literacy, and Religious Understanding in Protestant Faroese Tradition
Arne Bugge Amundsen, Church Architecture in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Scandinavia
Bernd Roling, Rugia Gothorum’: Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten and the Tradition of Gothicism
Anna Bohlin, Anti-Catholicism in Bremer and Topelius: Addressing the Historicity of Trans-historical Principles
Joachim Grage, Kierkegaard’s Journals as a Protestant Practice of Writing
Claudia Lindén, Ursus sacer. The Bear as Man’s Neighbour in Swedisch Nineteenth-century Fiction
Sophie Wennerscheid, Sin and Seduction: Antichrist in Danish Literature, Opera, and Film
Thomas Mohnike, Aesthetization of Faith and the Nordic Revival Movements in Scandinavian Post-World War II Literature
Giuliano D’Amico, “Rather Than Buddha’s Calm, I Choose the Crucifixion” – Håkan Sandell’s Christian Palimpsests
Joachim Schiedermair, Absence - Remnants of a Protestant Past: Greeley/Vattimo/Ask