Brief Bio
I was born in the coastal town of Åhus in Sweden in 1968. Between high school and university I enrolled in a one-year program on the economies of the two-thirds world and global trade, politics, and culture at Jämshögs folkhögskola, including travel and study in India. Among other things, I also worked one year as a teaching assistant in the village of Kidugala in south-western Tanzania (1987-1988).
At Lund University, where I began my undergraduate education in 1989, I earned a B.A. (Jewish Studies, 1995), an M.Div. (1995), an M.A. (Religious Studies, 1996), a Licentiate (New Testament Exegesis, 1997; thesis: The Judgment According to Matthew), and a Ph.D. (New Testament Exegesis, 2001; thesis: The Origins of the Synagogue: A Socio-Historical Study). I was appointed docent (approx. Dr. Habil.) in 2002, and was part of a team receiving the same year a four-year multi-million project grant for exploring the formation of early Christian identity.
My undergraduate and graduate studies focused on the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible and early Judaism (including rabbinics), with special attention to intra- and inter religious relations. I have worked with theological themes as well as with socio-historical analysis, and my research on the ancient synagogue also led me to archaeology and the study of inscriptions and papyri.
Obviously, such academic interests relate closely to the Middle East and, especially, Jerusalem. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to have been able to spend some time there studying, teaching, and researching. In 1990 I took part in the excavations at Tel Yisreel, and my undergraduate years also included one semester of study at the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem (1993). I returned to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 1999 for work related to my doctoral thesis on ancient synagogues.
Later, in 2003, I co-taught a course on religious dialogue (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) at Lund University, which included a field trip to Jerusalem and the Swedish Theological institute. In 2009-2010 I was a visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University during a research leave from McMaster University.
I have always been interested in learning about life from cultures around the globe. In addition to academic historical and theological studies, I have travelled (independently) in more than 40 countries in Asia, Africa, North and Central America, the Middle East, and Europe. This has meant encounters with a wide variety of religious traditions, which have influenced my understanding of inter-religious relations as well as deepened my reflection on the relationship between society and academia. I am an ordained pastor in the Church of Sweden (Lutheran), which means I also have an active interest in relating what I have encountered and learned to church life and (contextual) theology, as well as to contemporary religious dialogue and theologies of religion.
Many of my journeys around the globe I have made together with my wife Anna, and some of them also with our three children. In 2003 I was appointed to the faculty at McMaster University, the Department of Religious Studies, and we moved to Canada the same year. In 2015 we moved to Norway, where I am currently Dean and Professor of New Testament at the University of Oslo.
I specialize in New Testament studies, early Judaism, and Christian Origins, and supervise students on all levels within these fields: from 4th-year undergraduate honours theses to M.A. and Ph.D. theses. My teaching on both undergraduate and graduate levels include a range of traditional topics, such as the historical Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul and Christian Origins, as well as more specialized courses on, e.g., inter-religious relations in antiquity, and the synagogue as the birthplace of two world religions.
Having completed a monograph on the Gospel of Matthew entitled Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew (Fortress 2016), and one on Paul (Judaism for Gentiles; Mohr Siebeck, 2022), I am half-way through a book tracing theological developments from Jesus to Paul to Matthew, basing the analysis on a new type of approach, which I have called Institution Criticism. Also in the making are a few other books: one on reading Matthew after supersessionism, and one book on the importance of the ancient synagogue for understanding the New Testament and the origins of Christianity and Judaism.
On a private note, I enjoy long-distance running; Marathons, half-Marathons, and, especially, the oldest road race in North America: the annual 30K Around the Bay in Hamilton. As an academic experiment, in 2013 I completed a Tough Mudder race together with a colleague at McMaster. Conclusion? Like a day at the office—and that, perhaps, says more about academia than about Tough Mudder... More generally, I take pleasure in the great outdoors: everything from the sandy beaches where I was born and grew up, to mountains, deserts, and forests, from the Rockies to the Middle East, from the Himalayas to Dundas Conservation Area, the Hamilton Waterfront Trail and Oslo’s Akerselva.
At Lund University, where I began my undergraduate education in 1989, I earned a B.A. (Jewish Studies, 1995), an M.Div. (1995), an M.A. (Religious Studies, 1996), a Licentiate (New Testament Exegesis, 1997; thesis: The Judgment According to Matthew), and a Ph.D. (New Testament Exegesis, 2001; thesis: The Origins of the Synagogue: A Socio-Historical Study). I was appointed docent (approx. Dr. Habil.) in 2002, and was part of a team receiving the same year a four-year multi-million project grant for exploring the formation of early Christian identity.
My undergraduate and graduate studies focused on the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible and early Judaism (including rabbinics), with special attention to intra- and inter religious relations. I have worked with theological themes as well as with socio-historical analysis, and my research on the ancient synagogue also led me to archaeology and the study of inscriptions and papyri.
Obviously, such academic interests relate closely to the Middle East and, especially, Jerusalem. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to have been able to spend some time there studying, teaching, and researching. In 1990 I took part in the excavations at Tel Yisreel, and my undergraduate years also included one semester of study at the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem (1993). I returned to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 1999 for work related to my doctoral thesis on ancient synagogues.
Later, in 2003, I co-taught a course on religious dialogue (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam) at Lund University, which included a field trip to Jerusalem and the Swedish Theological institute. In 2009-2010 I was a visiting Professor at the Institute of Archaeology at Hebrew University during a research leave from McMaster University.
I have always been interested in learning about life from cultures around the globe. In addition to academic historical and theological studies, I have travelled (independently) in more than 40 countries in Asia, Africa, North and Central America, the Middle East, and Europe. This has meant encounters with a wide variety of religious traditions, which have influenced my understanding of inter-religious relations as well as deepened my reflection on the relationship between society and academia. I am an ordained pastor in the Church of Sweden (Lutheran), which means I also have an active interest in relating what I have encountered and learned to church life and (contextual) theology, as well as to contemporary religious dialogue and theologies of religion.
Many of my journeys around the globe I have made together with my wife Anna, and some of them also with our three children. In 2003 I was appointed to the faculty at McMaster University, the Department of Religious Studies, and we moved to Canada the same year. In 2015 we moved to Norway, where I am currently Dean and Professor of New Testament at the University of Oslo.
I specialize in New Testament studies, early Judaism, and Christian Origins, and supervise students on all levels within these fields: from 4th-year undergraduate honours theses to M.A. and Ph.D. theses. My teaching on both undergraduate and graduate levels include a range of traditional topics, such as the historical Jesus, the Gospels, and Paul and Christian Origins, as well as more specialized courses on, e.g., inter-religious relations in antiquity, and the synagogue as the birthplace of two world religions.
Having completed a monograph on the Gospel of Matthew entitled Divine Wrath and Salvation in Matthew (Fortress 2016), and one on Paul (Judaism for Gentiles; Mohr Siebeck, 2022), I am half-way through a book tracing theological developments from Jesus to Paul to Matthew, basing the analysis on a new type of approach, which I have called Institution Criticism. Also in the making are a few other books: one on reading Matthew after supersessionism, and one book on the importance of the ancient synagogue for understanding the New Testament and the origins of Christianity and Judaism.
On a private note, I enjoy long-distance running; Marathons, half-Marathons, and, especially, the oldest road race in North America: the annual 30K Around the Bay in Hamilton. As an academic experiment, in 2013 I completed a Tough Mudder race together with a colleague at McMaster. Conclusion? Like a day at the office—and that, perhaps, says more about academia than about Tough Mudder... More generally, I take pleasure in the great outdoors: everything from the sandy beaches where I was born and grew up, to mountains, deserts, and forests, from the Rockies to the Middle East, from the Himalayas to Dundas Conservation Area, the Hamilton Waterfront Trail and Oslo’s Akerselva.