Joseph Sverker
I'm teaching Church history and Systematic theology at Stockholm School of Theology. I am also director of research at the Centre for integration, diversity and church leadership (CIMK). My main interest is theological anthropology and political theology, so I find myself constantly interested in areas of political theory, critical theory and economics. However, with that being said more traditional areas of systematic theology is also of great interest such as Christology, atonement, doctrine of creation and the doctrine of the Trinity.
The research at CIMK is interdisciplinary between systematic theology, political theory, action research and ethnography. The emphasis is on what integration and diversity affects and is affected by churches in various diverse areas in Sweden.
My dissertation has the title Constructivism, Essentialism, and the Between: Human Being and Vulnerability in Judith Butler, Steven Pinker and Colin Gunton and it has been edited and reworked and was published as Human Being and Vulnerability: Beyond Constructivism and Essentialism in Judith Butler, Steven Pinker and Colin Gunton in 2020 by ibidem/Columbia University Press.
The research at CIMK is interdisciplinary between systematic theology, political theory, action research and ethnography. The emphasis is on what integration and diversity affects and is affected by churches in various diverse areas in Sweden.
My dissertation has the title Constructivism, Essentialism, and the Between: Human Being and Vulnerability in Judith Butler, Steven Pinker and Colin Gunton and it has been edited and reworked and was published as Human Being and Vulnerability: Beyond Constructivism and Essentialism in Judith Butler, Steven Pinker and Colin Gunton in 2020 by ibidem/Columbia University Press.
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Papers by Joseph Sverker
This text explores what is known as the immunization effect in relation to the growing useage of Christian imagery in populist movement. The immunization effect holds that high church attendence appears to "immunize" against edherence to populist movements. This is partly true, yet I argue that the immunization effect cannot write the church free from Christianityäs connection to populism in Europe.
This text explores what is known as the immunization effect in relation to the growing useage of Christian imagery in populist movement. The immunization effect holds that high church attendence appears to "immunize" against edherence to populist movements. This is partly true, yet I argue that the immunization effect cannot write the church free from Christianityäs connection to populism in Europe.
I Undrar om Gud tar sig teologen Joseph Sverker an många av de frågor som barn och unga kan fundera över i relation till den kristna tron. Han förklarar dessa för nyfikna i alla åldrar, men lite extra för dig mellan 10-15 år. Boken baseras på de många frågor om tron och livet som Joseph Sverker har stött på under sina år av engagemang på olika barnläger och annan kyrklig barnverksamhet.
Kan Gud dö? Varför är det fantastiskt att Jesus dog? Varför skapade Gud oss om han redan visste att vi skulle skada och plåga varandra så mycket som vi gör? Varför ska man tro på Gud/Jesus? Kan evolutionen och Gud hänga ihop? Vad är meningen med livet? Måste man vara kristen för att tro på Gud? Undrar om Gud ger förhoppningsvis svar på de här viktiga frågorna, men är också en hjälp i att tänka om vidare om livet och fortsätta att vara nyfiken på kristen tro.
In order to understand what underlies the division between nature and nurture, or biology and the social in school, Sverker develops new central concepts such as a kenotic personalism, a weak ontology of relationality, and a relational and performative reading of evolution. He argues that most fundamental for what it is to be human is the person, vulnerability, bodiliness, openness to the other, and dependence.
Sverker concludes that the division between constructivism and essentialism discloses a deeper divide, namely that between fundamentally vulnerable persons on the one hand and constructed independent individuals on the other.
With Gunton the author argues that a relational, but ‘weak’, ontology is needed. With this ‘ontology of the between’ Pinker and Butler can be explored in different ways. Pinker’s understanding of the individual and culture is challenged and worked towards one where culture and environment share meaning. Butler’s theory of performativity is reworked in light of Gunton’s and Pinker’s concepts of time. When some significant themes such as these have been dealt with Pinker, Butler and Gunton are made to interact on the question of the human being.
In the dissertation, the concept of person is central for it emphasises the complex interrelationality of human existence. Gunton’s concept of ‘spirit’ as an ‘openness to the other’ and Butler’s stress on vulnerability are ontologically significant. But the author also stresses that we are our bodies, constituted as person by the self-giving of the other. Therefore, informed by christology, a kenotic personalism is most fundamental for humans.
This insight is taken to the context of school. With Butler’s theory of interpellation reinterpreted, it is argued that school as an institution fulfils a double role with its pupils. As an institution of the state, school ‘individualises’ its pupils and the autonomy of the pupil is constructed. But as a place for learning, the relational comes to the fore and the pupil’s personhood emerges. But, it is argued, if vulnerability is fundamental for what it is to be human then too much individualisation will undermine that vulnerability and dependence on the other.
The dissertation therefore concludes that the division between biology and the social discloses a deeper divide, namely that between fundamentally vulnerable persons and constructed independent individuals. The constitution of the person depends on the giving of the other and institutions always partly fail in recognising the fundamentally human. But not only school fails; all humans fail in giving to the other sufficiently for personhood, all but one.