Assistant Professor, Department of the Study of Religion, Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus.

Project: "Reception and transformation of Scripture in Jewish tradition."

The research project contributes to the discussion of the role of scripture and takes its empirical point of departure in the reception and transformation of the Hebrew Bible, primarily the Book of Psalms.

Based on a critical assessment of theories on intertextuality and figurative language and of theological, comparative and anthropological studies on the concept of canon and scripture, the project argues for a methodological distinction between artefactual and hermeneutical use of scripture. A hermeneutical use of scripture implies a fusion of horizons between text and listener/reader including the option that s/he may accept and adhere to the world view that scripture proposes. An artefactual use of scripture correlates with its physical, non-semantic features, partly inhibiting interpretation, partly triggering mental representations which cause the incorporation of normative beliefs and forms of praxis among the listeners/readers.

Normative doctrines about belief and praxis must be passed on to contemporary and future members of society, while the fantasy and imagination of the religious person must be aroused and stimulated to secure his/her sense of belonging to the religious tradition, even in those situations where society cannot present convincing arguments for its normative base. By taking recourse to such literary means as dialogic language and split reference, religious literature seems to make the listener/reader oscillate between the doctrinal and the imagistic and promote a reception and transformation of the religious tradition. Scriptural reception and transformation is not an either-or but a simultaneous phenomenon, established through a hermeneutical and artefactual use of scripture.