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Marie S. Andersen - New PhD at the Department of Theology

Marie S. Andersen will associated with the New Testament unit and with the research project Epistolary Leadership – Cicero, Seneca, and Paul

Beginning 1st of September 2018, I am enrolled as a PhD student at the School of Culture and Society. Within the Department of Theology, I will be associated specifically with the New Testament unit and with the research project Epistolary Leadership – Cicero, Seneca, and Paul whose principal investigator, Prof. Eve-Marie Becker, is also my main supervisor.

I hold a BA and an MA degree in Theology from Aarhus University. During my years of study I have become increasingly interested in the concept of time – both as a theological construct (eschatology and apocalypticism) and as a philosophical theme. Simultaneously, I developed a strong interest in the letters of Paul and New Testament exegesis in general. Hence I wrote my BA thesis on the concept of hope in the text and context of Paul (Danish title: Έλπίς hos Paulus i tekst og kontekst) and a few years later my MA project on The Literary Function of Apocalyptic Language in the Letters of Paul: A Case Study of 1 Corinthians 15 (written in English).

Outside of Aarhus University, my understanding of New Testament texts has been immensely stimulated by the one year I spent abroad at the University of Chicago Divinity School (2014-15) where I had the great pleasure of studying New Testament and apocryphal texts with Prof. Hans-Josef Klauck, known – among other things – for his work on New Testament epistolography. This experience ties well into the work I will now be doing with the research group behind Epistolary Leadership where precisely the ancient genre of the letter will be a central point of focus for studying the political, philosophical and religious leadership conveyed – through the writing of letters – by Cicero, Seneca, and Paul.

I will continue to study the concept of time but now from a new angle, namely that of leadership. Hence the title of my PhD project is “Epistolary Leadership and the Management of Time – A Comparative Analysis of Paul’s and Seneca’s Letters”. Under this headline, I will be studying and comparing how the apostle Paul and the philosopher Seneca – in their letters – use various concepts of time as part of their respective leadership strategies. With this highly stimulating work on my desk I am looking forward to engage myself in the scholarly milieu of the School of Culture and Society at Aarhus University.  


Contact Information:

Marie S. Andersen 
Institut for Kultur og Samfund - Afdeling for Teologi
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 3
bygning 1453, 331
8000 Aarhus C

ma@cas.au.dk