Hebreiska bibeln debatterad : En receptionskritisk studie av diskurser om "Gamla testamentet" i svenska dagstidningar 1987-2017

Sammanfattning: By using Norman Fairclough’s version of critical discourse analysis, this study analyzes interpretations and depictions of the Hebrew Bible in debate articles in Sweden’s four largest daily newspapers between 1987 and 2017. The study is conducted from a reception critical perspective, analyzing and criticizing dominant strategies of interpretation and assumed interpretive preferences. Mediatization theory and aspects from secularization theory are also incorporated in the analysis. The material consists of 120 articles, relating to three debates concerning perceptions of women, God, and homosexuality in the Hebrew Bible (in the debates called “the Old Testament”). In the analysis, 12 dominant discourses are identified. The analysis shows how the discourses are constructed, reproduced or transformed, and which actors dominate the debates. Patterns in the order of discourse are analyzed in relation to media logics, showing that the bible becomes newsworthy when it can be related to specific topics. Changes in the order of discourse are analyzed in relation to religious complexity and trends such as the decreasing influence of religious authorities, an increasing individualization and diversity of religion, a new visibility of religion, as well as the Nordic countries as imbedded in Christian tradition. The results show that the Hebrew Bible is perceived as a problem, e.g. as the origin of the patriarchy, as endorsing violence and as legalistic in its essence. Debaters interpret the “Old Testament God” as misogynic, violent and judgmental, and tend to contrast the “Old” Testament with the “New” in a stereotypical way. Several discourses reproduce anti-Jewish notions. At the end of the time period another theme is identified as debaters discuss “the Bible” in relation to the Quran. In the final discussion, the term mediatized bible is used as a way to highlight tendencies found in the material, in which specific interpretations of the bible become dominant. The study argues that the reception critical field of biblical studies has much to gain from the use of critical discourse analysis. By analyzing the interpretive context such as societal factors and underlying ideologies, the study gives insights to not only which but why biblical interpretations are constructed in a specific setting.