Limits and Life—Meaning and Metaphors in the Religious Language of Iceland

Drawing from his 1989 dissertation in religious studies at Vanderbilt U. and adding recent scholarship, Thordarson, a pastor of the National Church of Iceland, demonstrates how classic religious texts of the Icelandic tradition teach the concept of its limit-culture and how they deal with issues of death, finitude, transience, and other limit issues. He explains the emphasis on limit in the country's native tradition, particularly in the medieval literature, and issues of religious and theological meaning for Icelanders, issues of nature, and theological issues of the Lutheran heritage. He details the type of Christianity in Iceland in the post-Reformation period and relevant social factors, then the significance of the texts Hymns of the Passion by HallgrA-mur PActursson and VA-dalA-nspostilla by bishop JA3n VA-dalA-n. He describes the theology of Pjetur Pjetursson, who prepared the way for the later dualistic model of theological liberalism; the changes at the end of the nineteenth century and impacts on theology and the church; the theological and cultural changes around 1900, the role of dualism, and the writings of JA3n Helgason and Haraldur NA-elsson; and outdated elements of the tradition. Annotation Ac2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Sigurdur Arni Thordarson is a pastor of ELCI, the National Church of Iceland. He holds a Cand. Theol. from the University of Iceland and a PhD from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.