Jayne Svenungsson

Biography

B. 1973. Th.D., Senior Lecturer at Stockholm School of Theology. Th.D. in Systematic Theology in 2002 from Lund University, with dissertation: Guds återkomst. En studie av gudsbegreppet inom postmodern filosofi. Since 2008 Honorary Research Fellow (University of Glasgow). Currently involved in the research project ”Att tänka historien: Om profetism, messianism och Andens utveckling” (funded by VR).

Ongoing research

The research project in which Svenungsson is currently involved, and which will be linked to the program, focuses on the renewed presence of traditional theological concepts for interpreting history (prophetism, messianism, the development of the spirit) in the contemporary European politico-philosophical discourse. Svenungsson will develop a study which elaborates the theme of messianic time and temporality in the works of F. Rosenzweig, W. Benjamin and E. Levinas. Common to these three 20th-century philosophers, all of whom were of Jewish origin, is the endeavour to break free from the totalizing implications of a Hegelian and progress oriented philosophy of history (cf. Moses 2006 and Bouretz 2003). They all found resources for this endeavour in the Jewish messianic tradition. However, none of them sought to reinstate a mythological conception of historical redemption. Rather, they sought to develop what could best be termed “a historical rupture of history”; a way out of history, which does not invalidate the particularity and historicity of the human being. The lasting value of these messianic philosophies, it will be argued, lies in the critical platform they offer for questioning a potentially violent universalism, without resigning to a separatist celebration of the particular.

Selected bibliography

Guds återkomst. En studie av gudsbegreppet inom postmodern filosofi, Logos/Pathos nr. 3, Göteborg: Glänta, 2004 (nytryck 2007)

– eds. with O. Sigurdson, Postmodern teologi. En introduction (Stockholm: Verbum, 2006)

– ”Filosofihistoria och sekularisering. Om filosofins teologiska genealogi”, Lychnos. Årsbok för idé- och lärdomshistoria. Tema: Filosofihistoriens idé (red. Mats Persson och Sharon Rider), 2006, s. 269-282. Fransk översättning: “Histoire de la philosophie et sécularisation : de la généalogie théologique de la philosophie”, L’Orient des dieux, Vol. VI-VII (2006-2007).

– ”Transcending Tradition: Towards a Critical Theology of the Spirit”, Studia Theologica, 62:1 (2008).

– “Sacrifice, Conflict and the Foundation of Culture”, Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, vol. 50 (2008).