Cognitive Science of Religion, Early Christianity, Digital Humanities

ORCID
ResearchGate

Selected books:

Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

The Grotesque Body in Early Christian Literature: Hell, Scatology and Metamorphosis. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.

Commission Narratives: A Comparative Study of the Canonical and Apocryphal Acts. Leuven: Peeters, 2007.

Selected articles:

"The Evolution of Semiotic Systems: On Volkhard Krech’s Evolution der Religion (2021)," in M. Stausberg (ed), 21th Century Theories of Religion, London: Routledge, 2024, pp. 257-275.

"The New Testament as a Model: Reading the Bible with Richard Dawkins," in P. von Gemünden, A. Merz, and H. Schwier (eds), Resonanzen: Gerd Theißen zum 80. Geburtstag, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2023, pp. 117-121.

"Religious Experience in Mediterranean Antiquity," in A. W. Geertz et al. (eds), Studying the Religious Mind: Methodology in the Cognitive Science of Religion, Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion, London: Equinox, 2022, pp. 167-176.

"Tours of heaven in light of the neuroscientific study of religious experience," in A. W. Geertz et al. (eds), Studying the Religious Mind: Methodology in the Cognitive Science of Religion, Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion, London: Equinox, 2022, 197-216.

"Creencias, Rituales y Memoria. Una introducción a la Ciencia Cognitiva de la Religión" (With I. Apud: Beliefs, Rituals and Memory: An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion), Psicología, Conocimiento y Sociedad 9(1), 229-257.

"Evolutionary theory on the move: New perspectives on evolution in the cognitive science of religion," Unisinos Journal of Philosophy 19(3), 2018, pp. 263-271.

"Visionary Practices in the Fourth Book of Ezra," in J.N. Bremmer, V. Hirschberger, and T. Nicklas (eds), Figures of Ezra, Leuven: Peeters, 2018, pp. 51-78.

"Armaments and Ornaments: Mate-Guarding and the Origins of Religion," Religion, Brain & Behavior, 2018, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2018.1498014.

"Cognition, Culture, and Religion: Surveying the Field," in N. Clements (ed), Religion: Mental Religion, Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbook of Religion, Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017, pp. 197-217.

"Die unbeholfenen Zauberlehrlinge in Ephesus (Die Söhne des Skevas): Apg. 19.11-17" (The Sorcerer’s Clumsy Apprentices; The Sons of Sceva; Acts 19:11-17) in R. Zimmermann et al. (eds), Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen. Band 2: Die Wunder der Apostel, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2017, pp. 257-267.

"'Unser Sohn ist Magier geworden!' (Wunderbare Brandlöschung in Philippi): ActAndr(Greg) 12" (Our Son has Become a Magician!: Miraculous Extinguishing of Fire, Acts of Andrew 12), in R. Zimmermann et al. (eds), Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen. Band 2: Die Wunder der Apostel, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2017, pp. 801-806.

"Cultural Evolution and Biblical Studies," in C. Gianotto and F. Sbardella (eds), Traiettorie antropologiche e storiche. Un omaggio ad Adriana Destro, Brescia: Morcelliana, 2017, pp. 239-255.

"Religious Experience Behind the Account of Isaiah’s Ascent to Heaven: Insights from Cognitive Science," in J.N. Bremmer, T.R. Karmann and T. Nicklas (eds), The Ascension of Isaiah, Leuven: Peeters, 2016, pp. 235-257.

"From Mirror Neurons to Morality: Cognitive and Evolutionary Foundations of Early Christian Ethics," in U. Volp, F.W. Horn, and R. Zimmermann (eds), Metapher – Narratio – Mimesis – Doxologie: Begründungsformen im frühchristlicher und antiker Ethik, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016, pp. 271-287.

"Network Analysis of Biblical Texts," Journal of Cognitive Historiography 3, 2016, pp. 43-67.

"Tours of heaven in light of the neuroscientific study of religious experience," Journal of Cognitive Historiography 2, 2015, pp. 34-54.

"How Can Evolutionary Theory Contritute to Biblical Studies?," in D.J. Chalcraft, R. Watson and F. Uhlenbruch (eds), New Directions in Biblical Studies: Social Scientific and Cultural Approaches, Sheffield: Phoenix Press, 2014, pp. 16-38.

"How to Read Miracle Stories with Cognitive Theory: On Harry Potter, Magic, and Miracle," in R. Zimmermann and B. Kollmann (eds), Hermeneutik der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014, pp. 391-404.

"Jesus' Religious Experience in the Gospels: Toward a Cognitive Neuroscience Approach," in P. von Gemünden, D. G. Horrell and M. Küchler (eds), Jesus. Rezeptionen des Galiläers in Wissenschaft, Kirche und Gesellschaft. FS Gerd Theissen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013, pp. 553-580.

"The Evolutionary Dynamics of Religious Systems: Laying the Foundations of a Network Model," in A.W. Geertz (ed), Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture, Durham: Acumen, 2013, pp. 98-120.

My research interests concern the relation between theology and philosophy. In particular, I have explored the dynamics between the ordinary and the extraordinary. I have explored how this dynamics is operative in a range og phenomena, such as the holy, aesthetic experience, wonder, mysticism and worship. I have also written on the problem of evil. In that respect, the role of physical pain bhas proved central, and along with it the general questions on incarnation, passivity, death and resurrection. Methodologically, phenomenology and ordinary language philosophy have had a great influence in my research.                                        

Projects:

Stone Age Demographics. PI, funded by the Norwegian Research Council 2017-2022. The project investigates demographics patterns in northern Norway, particularly western Finnmark during the period 9000-0 BC. some of the issue we focus on are fluctuations in population size, spatial distribution and the contemporaneity of dwellings at sites. 

Research group:

SARG Leader of the Sub-Arctic Stone Age Research Group (2015-2023), which is a forum for Stone Age archaeology in Tromsø, and which collaborates with scholars at other institutions nationally and internationally. 

Academia.edu

Themes:

• Stone Age in Northern Fennoscandia; I work predominantly with the period 6000-1500 BC, that is from the end of the Early Stone Age/Mesolithic through the Late Stone Age/Neolithic and into the Early Metal period/Bronze Age. I am particularly interested in the contacts and regional differentiation across northern Norway, northern Sweden, Finland and northwestern Russia.
• Hunter-gatherer societies past and present; Knowledge on historical and ethnographic hunter-fisher-gatherers may provide pertinent insight about the significant variation also amongst prehistoric groups.
• Interregional and multicultural interaction; we are increasingly aware that there were marked differences in livelihood and practices also amongst hunter-gatherers in the past. This provides the background for both social and economic interaction between groups.
• Past social and cultural variation with a particular interest in gender and identity; to what extent and how are we able to study social relations in past societies, such as gender roles, kinship, power structures and ethnic differentiation?
• Prehistoric rituals and religion; material culture is a key element also in world views, beliefs and rituals. Is is therefore a relevant and intersting research field also for archaeology.

Archaeology of the contemporary world, post/conflict archaeology, cultural-natural heritage and management, environmental archaeology and humanities, thing theories, archaeological theory, ecology, ruins and the afterlife of anthropogenic things.

Instagram: @steinfarstadvoll

Bluesky: @steinfarstadvoll.bsky.social

Cultural history, Historiography, Book history, Ibsen, Vesaas, World Literature

Research Projects:

Made Abroad: Producing Norwegian World Literature in a Time of Rupture, 1900-1950

Tarjei Vesaas and the Internationalisation of Norwegian Literature in the Twentieth Century

Early Modern Witchcraft Studies

Jean Bodin (1529/30-1596)