Andrew John Thomas

• Thomas, Andrew John (2021). The justice of theory: How and what do educational skills distribute? Education Sciences. ISSN 2227-7102. 11(9). doi: 10.3390/educsci11090478. Full text in Research Archive
• Thomas, Andrew John (2020). Visible and Invisible Religion: Unmarked images in chapter on religion. Prismet. ISSN 0032-8847. 71(2), p. 161–182. doi: 10.5617/pri.8004. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Are there systematic differences between the ways religion is illustrated in Norwegian Religious Education textbooks? This article analyses the distribution of images without religion-specific markers across chapters devoted to individual religions in contemporary textbooks. This kind of image is often used to explain and partly to defend religious ideas. The frequency of such images is highest in chapters on Buddhism, thereafter Christianity, but are otherwise almost absent. When we attend to the images themselves, concrete techniques for adjusting reader distance to the illustrated idea emerge. This asymmetry supports previous research demonstrating systematic differences in the ways in which various religions are portrayed as respectively exotic and philosophical, and has consequences for the construction of religion and its classroom treatment. Key words: religion, textbooks, illustrations, images, religious difference, definition of religion

• Thomas, Andrew John (2020). Sources and citizens: An essay in applied epistemology. Policy Futures in Education. ISSN 1478-2103. 18(4), p. 531–544. doi: 10.1177/1478210320921722. Full text in Research Archive
• Thomas, Andrew John & Rolin, Alf (2019). Reading religion in Norwegian textbooks: are individual religions ideas or people? British Journal of Religious Education. ISSN 0141-6200. 41(1). doi: 10.1080/01416200.2018.1484691. Full text in Research Archive Show summary

  Different religions are treated in different ways in Norwegian sixth form textbooks. We carried out an exhaustive content analysis of the chapters devoted to individual religions in textbooks for the Religion and Ethics course currently available in Norway, using rigorous indicators to code each word, image and question according to whether they were treated the religion as a set of ideas or a group of people. After adjusting for trends in the different kinds of data (word, image, question), we found that Buddhism and Christianity receive significantly more attention for their ideas than Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, which are treated more as people. This difference cannot be explained by the national syllabus or the particularities of the individual religions. The asymmetry also has implications for the pupils’ academic, moral and pedagogical agency for which teachers play a critical role in compensating.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2018). The City Became a Desert: Forcing the First Holy Fools into a Context. In Berger, Albrecht & Ivanov, Sergey (Ed.), Holy Fools and Divine Madmen: Sacred Insanity through Ages and Cultures. Ars Una. ISSN 978-3-946646-18-1. p. 4–28. Show summary

  The concept of sacred insanity is widespread among many religions of the world and through many ages and cultures. The present volume collects the contributions of the symposium _Holy Fools and Divine Madmen_, held in Munich in 2015. Employing interdisciplinary approaches, these studies cover a wide geographical and cultural range, from Byzantium westward to Italy and Ireland, and eastward to Islamic Iran, and to India and Tibet.

• Thomas, Andrew (2008). God, Vision and Power: Looking at Berkeley’s Cosmology and Disciplinary Power. Studia Theologica - Nordic Journal of Theology. ISSN 0039-338X. 62(1), p. 80–97. doi: 10.1080/00393380802024134. Show summary

  Enlightenment philosopher George Berkeley, Irish bishop of Cloyne (1695-1752) developed a theory of God’s relation to the world both rooted in orthodox Western Theology and influential for European secular government. This article critically examines the notion of God in Berkeleian thought with special reference to its implications for his concrete recommendations and political projects in British government and empire building. To this end, it examines the application of early Christian ascetic techniques to enlightenment colonial government. Berkeley’s thought exemplifies modernity’s modelling of the governing autonomous self on a transcendent impassible God. His ethics represent a practice of cosmology, where the world is watched by the judging subject.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2006). Pentecostalism and Normalization. In Stålsett, Sturla Johan (Eds.), Spirits of Globalization. The Growth of Pentecostalism and Experiential Spiritualities in a Global Age. SCM Press. ISSN 033404054X. p. 160–169.
• Thomas, Andrew John (2006). Gud som ser. Kirke og kultur. ISSN 0023-186X. p. 219–233.

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• Bjørnstad, Gunhild Brænne; Thomas, Andrew John; Næsje, Ragnhild Louise; Juma, Said; Ismail, Maryam Jaffar & Gora, Mwanamrisho Haji (2024). Intercultural encounters as educational adventures. Show summary

  Roundtable discussion: Introduction to the overall topic and brief description of the NoZa-project by Gunhild Brænne Bjørnstad (HiOF) Grafting roots: Spivak’s educational use of story  by Andrew John Thomas (HiOF) Exploring Zanzibari exchange students’ impressions and learning experiences in Norway  by Said Khamis Juma and Mwanamrisho Gora Haji (SUZA) The desire for inter-literacy as a driving force when working with storytelling in multicultural classrooms by Ragnhild Louise Næsje and Gunhild Brænne Bjørnstad (HiOF) Paradigm Shift, Intercultural Competence, and Pre-service Teacher Education by Maryam Jaffar Ismail (SUZA) Roundtable discussion

• Thomas, Andrew John (2023). Despoter og Demokrater: Arendt om KRLE. Show summary

  A central feature of the work of Hannah Arendt is her distinction between the political and the pragmatic, between how we relate to one another in a democratic field, and how we relate as members of a household. The first is at least potentially democratic, and allows for listening and responding, for actions that persuade and propose. The second is essentially despotic, appealing to obedience and organisation. The first is public, the second, private. This paper will do three things: 1) Defend Arendt’s division against posthumous criticism (for example, from Benhabib) by applying Agamben’s “patch” and establishing what kind of a distinction it is (i.e. not nominalist but of apparatus); 2) Interpret anti-essentialist approaches to religion such as “lived religion” as pragmatic/household rather than political/public (leaning heavily on postcolonial interpretations at this point); 3) Problematise the interpretation of essentialising approaches to religion that claim identities in the public sphere (of the genre “As a member of religious community X, I am telling you…”) as public statements. On the one hand, identity politics is at least political rather than despotic; on the other, political engagements based on demographic group rather than political principle is the way democracies die. All this leads us to a double bind for religious education: either study through anti-essentialist attempts to govern religion or accept essentialising identity politics. There may be an Arendtian solution: to treat religion as literature rather than social behaviour.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2023). En anglikansk religionsteologi.
• Thomas, Andrew John (2023). Bokmelding: David Baddiel Jews Don’t Count: How Identity Politics Failed One Particular Identity TLS Books, 2021. Prismet. ISSN 0032-8847. 74(1-2), p. 121–122.
• Thomas, Andrew John (2023). Self knowledge in education. Show summary

  Self knowledge is the preserve of both education and spirituality. Through self-knowledge pupils learn to live with and as the particularity of their brain. “Learning to learn” is an extremely powerful pedagogical tool, and part of a pupil’s journey towards lifelong learning and civic competence. Through self-knowledge we are also unsurprised by the strange or sinful turns our internal monologue takes. So how are we to negotiate the strategic and educational consequences of our growth in self-knowledge? This paper discusses common features between educational knowledge (harvested by assessments, screening, etc.) and spiritual development and their advantages and disadvantages for pupils and teachers. Is knowing oneself the gateway to emancipation or manipulation, to passivity or political virtue? And if both are possible, how is it to be deployed responsibly in the classroom? Concrete educational and spiritual practices are analysed from postcolonial perspectives and other critical theory (Achille Mbembe, Michel Foucault, Hannah Arendt, James Scott).

• Thomas, Andrew John (2022). Nice Enemies: an analysis of Hollywood enemies from Darth Vader to Gru. Show summary

  It is uncontroversial that the early Star Wars movies reflected their Cold War context. But many enemies in more recent Hollywood movies have had a different pattern: originating in and representing an evil faction, they are forgiven and given hero status because of their interpersonal relations (Gru, Maleficent, Megamind, etc.). This reflects transitions that crystallised in 1993: when Mandela won the peace prize, Huntington wrote the "Clash of the Civilisations" article, and the phrase "random acts of kindness" was coined. Political figures were soon afterwards felled on account of their personal morality rather than their ideological standing. More recently we have seen a backlash to this tendency that once again takes politics and ideology seriously (in our political lives - Black Lives Matter; on our screens - Game of Thrones; etc.)

• Thomas, Andrew John (2022). Pedagogiske verdier etter Corona. Show summary

  Hva har Corona fortalt oss om inkluderende skoler? Pandemien viste oss aktualiteten i de to teknologiene som Foucault påstod var sentrale for Europeiske samfunn. I et kurs fra 1975, og igjen i sin bok om fengselets historie (som også behandler skolehistorie), skilte han mellom modellene for å behandle spedalske, og pesten. Den første holder de syke og smittsomme utenfor byen for å behandle dem ved murene, og den andre innser at smitten allerede er blant oss, så kropper må testes og kontrolleres. De to i sin tur tilsvarer det vi kjenner som innreisekarantene og smittesporing. I medisin og pedagogikk viser det seg at vårt samfunn behandler problemer administrativt i tillegg til fagspesifikt. Vi kan nemlig også se disse to modellene i skole: en verdiladet bevegelse fra spedalsk til pest hos «inklusive skolene» etter Salamanca (1994), vurdering for læring, og norske praksiser om spesialundervisning. Det å ramme inn disse verdibaserte og forskningsbaserte tiltak på denne måten gjør det mulig å identifisere og drøfte verdiene og elevsynet i dem. Hvis testing er betingelsen for vår inkludering kan vi ikke uten videre hate testing og elske inkludering. Vi må heller se hva inkludering koster, og hva testing kjøper oss.

• Olandersson, Cecilie & Thomas, Andrew John (2022). Flipped classroom - en utforskende metode i et informasjonssamfunn?
• Thomas, Andrew John (2021). Hauge og økonomiens dårlighet. Show summary

  Hauge kan ikke bare løftes inn i moderne økonomi eller politikk. Likevel er hans innflytelse størst i dag hos norske holdninger til skatt og entreprenørskap. Historisk teolog Andrew Thomas diskuterer Norges økonomiske politikk i Hauges tid på bakgrunn av den kristne kamp for rettferdighet.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2021). Rowan Williams: en teologisk introduksjon. Luthersk Kirketidende. ISSN 0332-5431. 156(10), p. 268–271. Show summary

  I år har tidligere erkebiskop Rowan Williams vært aktuell i Norge ved å holde bibeltimer på Korsvei i Seljord. Mange opplever hans bøker som vanskelige: Jeg forsøker her å vise hvordan sentrale ideer utarbeides i teori og praksis.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2021). Kilder: "Min egen hjerne", om kildetolkning. Show summary

  Problematisering av hva elever gjør med det de finner på nettet og politiske og pedagogiske farer med å behandle nettbasert informasjon først og fremst som sekundær kilde.

• Andersland, Inge; Aukland, Knut; Iversen, Ragnhild Laird; Kvia, Anne Siri; Thomas, Andrew John & Tømmerås, Heidi Hansen [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2020). Ti problemer som skolens religionsfag står overfor. Utdanningsnytt.no.
• Aukland, Knut; Andersland, Inge; Lomsdalen, Christian; Iversen, Ragnhild Laird; Kvia, Anne Siri & Thomas, Andrew John (2020). Lansering av: Ti uløste Problemer: KRLE og Religion og etikk, 2020-2030. Show summary

  I løpet av 2020 har redaksjonen i KRLEpodden forsøkte å svare på det følgende enkle spørsmål: Hva kan sies å være de ti største utfordringene i RLE-feltet de neste ti årene? Sammen har de jobbet frem en liste over de ti største problemene i RLE-didaktikken ved hjelp av delfimetoden, og skrevet en rapport som utdyper prosjektets hensikt og innhold, og ikke minst de ti største utfordringene. Fredag 27. november ble listen lansert sammen med rapporten. Alle som er interesserte ble invitert til å delta: Lærere, studenter, lærerutdannere, forskere, elever, foreldre, politikere og andre. Christian Lomsdalen, aka Lektor Lomsdalen, ledet samlingen.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2019). Religion, religioner, religionere. Show summary

  La oss heller eksponere våre elever til Norges fantastiske religionsmangfold, stille faglige spørsmål, og vekke deres naturlige nysgjerrighet i religionenes praksiser, ideer, og fortellinger. La dem studere religioner, og holde det tørre spørsmålet «hva er religion?» til en marginal leddsetning i skolens mest engasjerende fag.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2018). Finnes det systematiske forskjeller mellom hvordan religionene illustreres i norske lærebøker. Show summary

  Finnes det systematiske forskjeller mellom hvordan religionene illustreres i norske lærebøker? Her presenteres en innholdsanalyse som identifiserer distribusjonen av en spesifikk kategori bilder blant kapitler om individuelle religioner i lærebøkene for KRLE og religion og etikk tilgjengelige i dag. Bildene som velges ut (og her døpes "innsiktsbilder") har ingen religionsspesifikke markører, og brukes ofte i teksten til å forklare, og delvis å anbefale, religiøse ideer. Frekvensen av slike bilder er høyest hos kapitler om buddhismen, dernest hos de om kristendom. De er nesten fraværende andre steder, og faktisk fraværende utenom de fem verdensreligionene. Bildenes kontekst viser oss konkrete teknikker som justerer leserens avstand til den illustrerte ideen. Denne ulikheten støtter opp under og gir oss mer innsikt i observasjonen om forskjellen mellom buddhismen og hinduismen (Thobro, Winje), og har konsekvenser for hvordan individuelle religioner behandles i læringsressurser og skal behandles i klasserommet.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2018). Leontius of Neapolis. In Allison, Dale C. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception (EBR) volume 16 Lectionary - Lots. De Gruyter Open. ISSN 978-3-11-031333-8. Show summary

  Leontius of Neapolis in Cyprus (fl. 620-650) was a bishop with a taste for odd stories. He is most known for his hagiography, which was shot through with biblical references that took stories in new directions.

• Aukland, Knut; Tømmerås, Heidi Hansen; Iversen, Ragnhild Laird; Iversen, Lars Åsmund Laird & Thomas, Andrew John (2018). Uenighet i klasserommet. Show summary

  I episoden hører vi fra Lars Laird Iversen (PhD) om begrepet han lanserte i boka med samme tittel og i sin doktorgradsavhandling "Learning to be Norwegian: a case study of identity management in religious education in Norway". Hva trenger vi å være enige om for å kunne leve sammen? En del utdanningspolitikk tar utgangspunktet i ett svar til spørsmålet, nemlig kristne og humanistisk verdier. Men hva gjør vi når elever ikke er enige i dem? Hvor mye uenighet og splid takler våre klasserom? Hvor kommer egentlig klasseregler fra? Trenger vi å hegne om majoritetskulturen? Videre lesning: Iversen, L. L. (2012). Learning to be Norwegian: a case study of identity management in religious education in Norway. Waxmann Verlag. Iversen, L. L. (2014). Uenighetsfellesskap: blikk på demokratisk samhandling. Universitetsforlaget.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2018). Smarte Samtaler: KRLEpodden v/Knut Aukland www.krlepodden.com. Prismet. ISSN 0032-8847. 69(2-3), p. 255–257. Show summary

  Hvor konstruktiv er offentlig samtale om religionsfaget i skolen? Knut Aukland ved det nybakte Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge har tatt opp utfordringen ved å utgi en podcast-serie om skolefaget. KRLEpodden fungerer som en bro mellom faglitteratur og forelesning (Open Access, så klart), og i det utvidede tekstbegrepets ånd er det en selvfølge med anmeldelse i Prismet. Jeg tar utgangspunkt i de første 6 episodene, og fokuserer på selve lydfilene heller enn på den tilhørende nettsida.

• Schjetne, Espen; Hansen, Ole Henrik Borchgrevink; Ramstad, Mette & Thomas, Andrew John (2018). KRLE når Gud er død. Morgenbladet. ISSN 0805-3847.
• Schjetne, Espen; Hansen, Ole Henrik Borchgrevink; Ramstad, Mette & Thomas, Andrew John (2018). Aakvaag surrer med religionsbegrepet. Morgenbladet. ISSN 0805-3847.
• Thomas, Andrew John & Rolin, Alf (2017). Reading other people’s stories. Show summary

  How critical do we want pupils to be in religious studies? The aim of this paper is to determine the distribution of two different kinds of reading in religious studies textbooks and discuss their implications for how pupils read in the subject. Our quantitative content analysis of all Norwegian upper secondary textbooks in religious studies reveals that religions are presented in very different ways. We exhaustively coded every word, exercise and image in the chapters devoted to individual religions according to whether the presentation is of a set of ideas or a group of people. We found that Christianity and Buddhism tend to be portrayed as ideas for discussion, whereas Islam, Hinduism and Judaism are portrayed more as communities. A visible consequence of this difference is the kind of reading task set for individual religions. The typical “idea” task involves interpreting religious texts, whereas the typical “people” task involves analyzing self-presentations online. These two reading activities pose a challenge for classroom safe space. The national syllabus for religion and ethics (basic skills) presents textual interpretation as engagement with stories, with all the personality and passion this involves. Pupils are expected to think through the contents and truth-claims embodied by religious texts. The same document describes the analysis of self-presentations online as a critical practice of data-collection and evaluation that brings pupils face to face with lived religion without the filter of established normative doctrinal parameters, but encourages pupils to be guarded in their reading. We argue that the unequal status held by religions in society maintaining unequal distributions of skepticism and consent, acceptance and critique, is replicated in textbook religion. Keywords: textbooks, religion, critical reading, skills

• Thomas, Andrew John (2017). Mission-shaped echo chambers? Show summary

  How can parishes avoid becoming echo-chambers? This paper examines contributions from the Anglican Mission-Shaped Church (2004) and other ecclesiologies (particularly the Grundtvigian tradition) and compares them with modern networks, with a particular focus on their potential to become interruptive or mere echo-chambers.

• Thomas, Andrew (2016). Dialog og omvendt klasseromsundervisning. Prismet. ISSN 0032-8847. 67(3), p. 225–228.
• Thomas, Andrew (2015). Religion på svartebørs: Hauge og religiøs merkantilisme.
• Thomas, Andrew (2015). The city became a desert: forcing the first holy fools into a context. Show summary

  If the first holy fools are to be understood as anything other than odd laywomen and men, then their relationship to asceticism must be clarified. Most interpreters agree that some kind of ostracism is central to their activity, and the same is true of early Christian asceticism. So this paper will sketch out a matrix for understanding ascetic self-ostracism, and then apply it to a few early holy foolery stories, identifying how they differ from non-foolish parallels. Specifically, it is claimed that early ascetics mark their distance from secular society by their renunciation of the world’s vainglory and clothing, and by their obedience and regimen. The hypothesis is that the first holy fools made use of the same techniques, but without constructing new community, so that they can be described as true solitaries, profane rather than secular.

• Thomas, Andrew (2015). På fremmed terreng: religion i andre fag. Prismet. ISSN 0032-8847. 66(2), p. 107–111. Show summary

  Det er ikke bare i religion og etikk faget at elever tar stilling til religiøse temaer på videregående skole. Allerede fra VG1 er det forventet at elever skal kunne «diskutere korleis religiøs, etnisk og kulturell variasjon skaper moglegheiter og utfordringar» og det er uavhengig av at faglæreren velger å bruke religion for å illustrere samfunnsvitenskapelige analyser. Vi finner liknende mål i andre læreplaner også.

• Schjetne, Espen & Thomas, Andrew (2015). Religion og etikk i videregående skole. Prismet. ISSN 0032-8847.
• Thomas, Andrew (2010). Farlig religion: om forskjellen mellom forkynnelse og holdningsdannelse. Religion og livssyn : Tidsskrift for religionslærerforeningen i Norge. ISSN 0802-8214. p. 22–28.
• Thomas, Andrew John (2006). Postkolonial teologi: En kort innføring. Ung Teologi. ISSN 0333-340X. 39(1), p. 27–40. Show summary

  En innføring i postkolonial teologi, fra en språkfilosofisk synsvinkel, med referanse til: Renan, Bailey, og Sugirtharajah.

• Thomas, Andrew John (2005). The Places of Unreason in Theology. Show summary

  This paper claims with Foucault that the Christian era most associated with the debate over the role of reason in theology – namely, the classical age – is also typified by a fear and rejection of unreason. Foucault’s account will then argue that the suppression of unreason and the production of the psychological modern self as the only modus vivendi was achieved through a discipline and confession that was essentially religious in character. It is the contention of this paper that these disciplines are contingent as religious ways of life, and that Christian asceticism may be re-imagined with reference to the practical apophaticism of the early Byzantine holy fool, Symeon Salos (in Leontius of Neapolis’ Life). This latter betrayed common traits of monastic discipline severed from their normalising context and hierarchical structure. It is perhaps only by freeing itself from such pastoral forms of power that Christian confession may withdraw from its support of capitalist technologies of the self.

• Aukland, Knut; Iversen, Ragnhild Laird; Tømmerås, Heidi Hansen; Thomas, Andrew John; Schanke, Åge J. & Kvia, Anne Siri [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2020). Ti uløste Problemer: KRLE & Religion og etikk, 2020-2030. KRLEpodden. Show summary

  I løpet av 2020 har redaksjonen i KRLEpodden forsøkte å svare på det følgende enkle spørsmål: Hva kan sies å være de ti største utfordringene i RLE-feltet de neste ti årene? Sammen har de jobbet frem en liste over de ti største problemene i RLE-didaktikken ved hjelp av delfimetoden, og skrevet en rapport som utdyper prosjektets hensikt og innhold, og ikke minst de ti største utfordringene.

• Thomas, Andrew (2009). The holy fools: a theological enquiry. University of Nottingham etheses. Show summary

  What is the significance of the deployment of madness in the early Christian ascetic experience of holiness? The first Byzantine holy fools – themselves critics of monastic orders – represent the consistent and logical conclusion of the theology and practice of the early Christian ascetics, and in particular that of the followers of Anthony and Pachomius. The flight to the desert of the first Christian anchorites and coenobites was an attempt to transform the experience and theology of holiness in church and society by transgressing the rules and thoughts of the city in a practical outworking of negative theology. The transgressive behaviour of the holy fools renewed that transformation by accepting neither secular nor religious truth and life. Where desert fathers and mothers had transformed the production of norms by their obedience and ascetic transcendence of human life, holy fools undermined the religious production of norms through their masterless obedience, defeat of vainglory, and foreignness to self. The transformation of the production of ethical knowledge amongst early Christian ascetics – through control of passions, representations, and silence – was followed through by the holy fools’ apophatic babble and rejection of religious loci of knowledge production in liturgy, confession, religious community and ecclesial authority. As a continuation of ascetic methods of reforming the self’s relation to society by brutal truthtelling and truth-hearing, the holy fools used self-ostracising insult and laughter to follow divine truth into the periphery without legislating universal modesty and submission to group truths. As such, the holy fools exemplify the practices most idealised in early Christian asceticism – humility, suspicion of fixed orders and truths, apophatic critique of doctrine and legislation – with renewed innovation and commitment to city life. They applied the strategic moves and principles of negative theology to the Christian theology and practice of holiness through aspiring to desert freedom, the practice of ignorance, and the unserious self.

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