Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
− 3 March 2016 in
Visby
Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably th ...
) was a Swedish biblical scholar, theologian,
church historian
Church Historian and Recorder (usually shortened to Church Historian) is a priesthood calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The role of the Church Historian and Recorder is to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of th ...
, patrologist and associate professor at
Lund University
, motto = Ad utrumque
, mottoeng = Prepared for both
, established =
, type = Public research university
, budget = SEK 9 billion Beskow family through his grandmother Anna Beskow.
Beskow studied
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...
and got a great interest in
patristics
Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...
, the early church literature and theology. He was ordained in the
Church of Sweden
The Church of Sweden ( sv, Svenska kyrkan) is an Evangelical Lutheran national church in Sweden. A former state church, headquartered in Uppsala, with around 5.6 million members at year end 2021, it is the largest Christian denomination in Sw ...
practical theology
Practical theology is an academic discipline that examines and reflects on religious practices in order to understand the theology enacted in those practices and in order to consider how theological theory and theological practices can be more full ...
and church history. In 1961 he was admitted to the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
master of philosophy
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil m ...
in 1966. He was appointed
associate professor
Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''.
Overview
In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...
in exegetical patristics at Uppsala University after his doctoral thesis and was promoted to theology
jubilee doctor
{{no footnotes, date=April 2014
A jubilee doctor ( sv, jubeldoktor, fi, riemutohtori, la, doctor jubilaris) or golden doctor (german: Goldene Doktor) is in some countries a person who has held a doctorate for 50 years or more. When 50 years have ...
in 2012.
In 1968, he was associate professor at
Boston College
Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...
, the University of
Jesuits
The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, to participate in the construction of a graduate department . From 1969 to 1972, he was an associate professor at the
University of Applied Sciences
A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...
in
Gävle
Gävle () is a city in Sweden, the seat of Gävle Municipality and the capital of Gävleborg County. It had 77,586 inhabitants in 2020, which makes it the 13th most populated city in Sweden. It is the oldest city in the historical Norrland (Swede ...
, 1972–1973 lecturer at
St. Martin's College
St Martin's College was a British higher education college with campuses in Lancaster, Ambleside and Carlisle, as well as sites in Whitehaven, Barrow and London. It provided undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the arts, humanities, b ...
in Lancaster, England (equivalent to a college of teachers). He taught in the
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
Exegesis
Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...
at Uppsala from 1973 to 1974.
Between 1974 and 1985 he was an associate professor of religious history in Lund. In 1979 he founded Collegium Patristicum Lundense together with other researchers. He also published a series of
translations
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
of
patristic
Patristics or patrology is the study of the early Christian writers who are designated Church Fathers. The names derive from the combined forms of Latin ''pater'' and Greek ''patḗr'' (father). The period is generally considered to run from ...
texts. In his work "Strange Tales about Jesus" (1983), he criticized the research of Edmond Székely, proving the falsification of his work in the Vatican archive and the
Austrian National Library
The Austrian National Library (german: Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is the largest library in Austria, with more than 12 million items in its various collections. The library is located in the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg in center of V ...
.
From 1985 to 1992 he was a senior lecturer in church history at the Department of Theology in Lund.
From 1989 he was an employee of the National Encyclopedia and wrote about 1,000 articles in the subject of religion and continued with updates of NE's online edition. Beskow was a member of the Nathan Söderblom Society and the Science Society in Lund.
In 2011, he received the
Anders Nygren
Anders Theodor Samuel Nygren (15 November 1890, Gothenburg – 20 October 1978, Lund) was a Swedish Lutheran theologian. He was professor of systematic theology at Lund University from 1924 and was elected Bishop of Lund in 1948 (emeritus 1958). He ...
Prize from the Faculty of Theology at Lund University. Artos & Norma book publisher founded 2014 Per Beskow's prize for younger academics/writers who work within the meeting between theology, society and culture. The 2014 award went to Associate Professor Jayne Svenungsson.
He died on March 3, 2016 in Visby on the island of Gotland.
Publications
His ''Strange Tales'' (1985) is a collection of essays and researches into modern
apocrypha
Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...
, what Beskow later (2011) preferred to term "mystifications." These included investigations into
Edmund Bordeaux Szekely
Edmond Bordeaux Szekely (March 5, 1905 – 1979) was a Hungarian philologist/linguist, philosopher, psychologist and natural living enthusiast. Szekely authored ''The Essene Gospel of Peace'', which he claimed he had translated from an ancient te ...
's hoax "Essene Letter" (1937) and others. ''Strange Tales'' was one of the first books to cast doubt on
Morton Smith
Morton Smith (May 28, 1915 – July 11, 1991)Neusner, Jacob, ''Christianity, Judaism, and other Greco-Roman Cults. Part 1: New Testament'', ed. J. Neusner, ''Studies for Morton Smith at Sixty, vol 1, New Testament'' (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), p. ...
's
Secret Gospel of Mark
The Secret Gospel of Mark or the Mystic Gospel of Mark ( grc-x-biblical, τοῦ Μάρκου τὸ μυστικὸν εὐαγγέλιον, tou Markou to mystikon euangelion), also the Longer Gospel of Mark, is a putative longer and secret or my ...
. Smith responded by threatening to sue Fortress Press.The Blackwell Companion to Jesus ed. Delbert Burkett - 2011 CHAPTER 28 Modern Mystifications of Jesus Per Beskow "Within Christian circles, there has always been literature that attempts to supplement the narratives of the gospels and to reinterpret the events in the life of Christ..." ''Strange Tales'' (1985) also covered, in English, the subject of his earlier ''Jesus i Kashmir : Historien om en legend'' (1981) dealing with claims of Jesus' travels to India. Beskow updated his researches on these "mysteries" in ''The Blackwell Companion to Jesus'' (2011).
Bibliography
* Rex Gloriae: The Kingship of Christ in the Early Church (thesis), 1962.
* Theological dictionary, 1975.
* Tron's roads (first published in 1973 with the title Religion Studies for Class Teacher Education), 1980, 10 edition 2003.
* Findings and cheats in the bible world, 1979 extended and processed edition 2005.
* Jesus in Kashmir, 1981.
* Strange Tales about Jesus, 1983.
* Easter, 1986.
* Maria in cult, art, vision, 1991.
* Scandinavian Christianity in European perspective (together with Reinhardt Staats), 1994.
* The Christian Church: from the Apostles to the Renaissance (together with Jan Arvid Hellström and Nils-Henrik Nilsson), 1995.
* Theological dictionary, 1999.
* Lectio divina: a guide to Christian spirituality, 2000.
* Cistercian, 2008.
* The icon: presence and source (together with Samuel Rubenson, Britt-Inger Johansson, Lars Gerdmar and Paul Meyendorff) 2011.
* The Saints, 2012
Translation and commentary on patristic texts:
* Solomon's ode (together with Sten Hidal), 1980.
* Desert language of the desert fathers, 1982.
* Melito by Sardes, About Easter, 1984.
* Ambrosius of Milan, About the Sacraments, About the Mysteries, 1989.
* Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis, 1992.
* Egeria, Travel Letter from the Holy Land (commentary), 2006.
* The Apostolic Fathers (together with Olof Andrén), 1992.
* Has participated in the Swedish Patristic Library 1998–2008.
* Red. by Birgitta of Vadstena, pilgrim and prophet (together with Annette Landen), 2003.
* Employees in Forums Religionlex, 1996, 2006.
* Scientific papers in various publications.
* Articles in magazines, including in Signum and Pilgrim.
* Participated in the 1980s on the cultural side of Sydsvenskan.