Magnus_Arvid
@magnusarvid.bsky.social
https://magnusarvid.substack.com/
🇩🇰 PhD, Religious Studies, University of Bergen 🇳🇴
Master's in History of Religion (the Religious Roots of Europe-programme)
Bachelor's in Assyriology + minor in Modern Standard Arabic and modern middle eastern history
🇩🇰 PhD, Religious Studies, University of Bergen 🇳🇴
Master's in History of Religion (the Religious Roots of Europe-programme)
Bachelor's in Assyriology + minor in Modern Standard Arabic and modern middle eastern history
Steely Dan, Kanye West samples, B.B. King, Chuck D, Gnosticism, early Christianity and Judaism, Gilgamesh, the Bible. What in the possible cosmos could all these have in common?
Only one way to find out.
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Only one way to find out.
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Crossroads II: Kind of Blue
Loops and Literary Loans: On the Nature of Creativity
open.substack.com
November 30, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Steely Dan, Kanye West samples, B.B. King, Chuck D, Gnosticism, early Christianity and Judaism, Gilgamesh, the Bible. What in the possible cosmos could all these have in common?
Only one way to find out.
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Only one way to find out.
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
And keeping in the hip-hop theme, I did also have a pretty fun time dissecting and discussing KRS' "The Truth"
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
The Cross: A Discourse with KRS-One
A Stream of Consciousness on the Symbol of the Cross, Reading Holy Scripture, and Examples of Good and Bad Polemics
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:53 AM
And keeping in the hip-hop theme, I did also have a pretty fun time dissecting and discussing KRS' "The Truth"
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Ah, where it all started. What is religion? What does it have to do with old school hiphop?
Only one way to find out!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Only one way to find out!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
What is "Religion"?
Discussing Terminology and Holy Scriptures, through a Brief History of Early Hip-Hop
open.substack.com
November 22, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Ah, where it all started. What is religion? What does it have to do with old school hiphop?
Only one way to find out!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Only one way to find out!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Reposted by Magnus_Arvid
🎃🎃🎃👻👻👻
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Ghosts in the Sands: Spirits and Holy Wars in the Wilderness
Spooky ruminations on antique, late antique, and medieval conceptions of deserts and wildernesses, from Mesopotamia to Scandinavia
open.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:32 PM
🎃🎃🎃👻👻👻
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Being non-American and, generally speaking, philosophically Liberal, I always found the pan-American obsession with "race" strange (post WW2-Danes associate the idea of "human races" with Nazism)
- In this essay I use an often overlooked (but curious) example:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
- In this essay I use an often overlooked (but curious) example:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Chosen Ones, Conspiratorial Thought, and Homo Cultus
The Five Percenters, the Nation of Islam, Modern Protestant Ethics of Religiosity, and Seeing Oneself as Chosen
open.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Being non-American and, generally speaking, philosophically Liberal, I always found the pan-American obsession with "race" strange (post WW2-Danes associate the idea of "human races" with Nazism)
- In this essay I use an often overlooked (but curious) example:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
- In this essay I use an often overlooked (but curious) example:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
🎃🎃🎃👻👻👻
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Ghosts in the Sands: Spirits and Holy Wars in the Wilderness
Spooky ruminations on antique, late antique, and medieval conceptions of deserts and wildernesses, from Mesopotamia to Scandinavia
open.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 6:32 PM
🎃🎃🎃👻👻👻
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Did you know "ghoul" comes from Arabic غول "ghūl", which itself is cognate with Akkadian "Gallû"?
And what in the world could those have in common with Draugr from old norse myth?
That and more spooky Halloween ruminations, come on down!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
What language(s) was the Bible(s) written in? Why is the word "synagogue" Greek? What actually *were* synagogues in late antiquity?
More on that, and the blurred lines between religious groups and the multilingual world of the late antique Mediterranean over here:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
More on that, and the blurred lines between religious groups and the multilingual world of the late antique Mediterranean over here:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Translating the Hebrew Bible: Aramaic
A Brief Look at Translations of the Hebrew Bible, the Relationship Between Hebrew and Aramaic, and a Couple of Book Recommendations
open.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 12:49 AM
What language(s) was the Bible(s) written in? Why is the word "synagogue" Greek? What actually *were* synagogues in late antiquity?
More on that, and the blurred lines between religious groups and the multilingual world of the late antique Mediterranean over here:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
More on that, and the blurred lines between religious groups and the multilingual world of the late antique Mediterranean over here:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
What am I doing in this ancient synagogue in the ruins of the habour city of Ostia near Rome? And what is Rabbic Judaism??
Only one way to find out:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Only one way to find out:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
September 30, 2025 at 12:46 AM
What am I doing in this ancient synagogue in the ruins of the habour city of Ostia near Rome? And what is Rabbic Judaism??
Only one way to find out:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Only one way to find out:
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
PART 2:
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
Falsafa, Fiqh, wa Kalām II: Islamic Thought, Contextualized for Cowpokes and Varangians
Part II: Islamic Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Theology, a Crash Course
open.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 12:42 AM
PART 2:
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
PART 1:
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
Falsafa, Fiqh, wa Kalām: Islamic Thought, Contextualized for Cowpokes and Varangians I
Solving the Problems of Scriptural Interpretation in Late Antique Islam: The Prelude
open.substack.com
September 30, 2025 at 12:42 AM
PART 1:
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
Have you ever wondered how Islam really sort of works, you know, when you get your hands into the nitty-gritty of interpreting verses, making rules and laws, figuring out who has the right interpretation, that stuff?
I happen to have a two-part series for you.
FUN WITH LETTERS, PART 2:
September 25, 2025 at 1:02 PM
FUN WITH LETTERS, PART 2:
A historians primary work is reading texts, and trying to figure out their contexts, sometimes without even having the entire text available - and when we read religious literature, really, we're doing a kind of metaphysical archaeology on the long-abandoned battlefields of interpretation.
Battles of Interpretations and the Study of their Aftermath
A Summary of Our Exploration of Scriptural Interpretive Traditions, and Reflections on the Authority to Interpret and the Course of History
open.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
A historians primary work is reading texts, and trying to figure out their contexts, sometimes without even having the entire text available - and when we read religious literature, really, we're doing a kind of metaphysical archaeology on the long-abandoned battlefields of interpretation.
Did you know our oldest recorded joke (in writing) is about 4000 years old, and is literally a "An X walked into a bar"-style joke?
September 25, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Did you know our oldest recorded joke (in writing) is about 4000 years old, and is literally a "An X walked into a bar"-style joke?
I wanted to keep this intro-text so I have sneakily put it in a picture to cheat the letter-counter, hehehehe
Anyways, in my MA thesis I wrote a bit about how forerunners of the nazi ideology and it's impact on studies of history and religion in Germany!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Anyways, in my MA thesis I wrote a bit about how forerunners of the nazi ideology and it's impact on studies of history and religion in Germany!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
September 25, 2025 at 10:06 AM
I wanted to keep this intro-text so I have sneakily put it in a picture to cheat the letter-counter, hehehehe
Anyways, in my MA thesis I wrote a bit about how forerunners of the nazi ideology and it's impact on studies of history and religion in Germany!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Anyways, in my MA thesis I wrote a bit about how forerunners of the nazi ideology and it's impact on studies of history and religion in Germany!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
STOP DOOMSCROLLING,
and instead go check out this little essay on existing paired with a few music recommendations ranging from Saharan desert blues to Swedish folk!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
and instead go check out this little essay on existing paired with a few music recommendations ranging from Saharan desert blues to Swedish folk!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
Crossroads: A Celebration of Humanity
An Eclectic, Unbound Music Newsletter/Essay-series
open.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 9:57 AM
STOP DOOMSCROLLING,
and instead go check out this little essay on existing paired with a few music recommendations ranging from Saharan desert blues to Swedish folk!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
and instead go check out this little essay on existing paired with a few music recommendations ranging from Saharan desert blues to Swedish folk!
open.substack.com/pub/magnusar...
What does KRS-One, House of Pain, The Babylonian Talmud, early 1st millennium CE synagogues, early Hip-Hop, and the modern popular/scientific conception of “Religion” have to do with each other?
Only one way to find out!
Only one way to find out!
Word is Bond
A Little Essay About Belonging and Knowing What We're Supposed To Do
open.substack.com
September 23, 2025 at 10:57 AM
What does KRS-One, House of Pain, The Babylonian Talmud, early 1st millennium CE synagogues, early Hip-Hop, and the modern popular/scientific conception of “Religion” have to do with each other?
Only one way to find out!
Only one way to find out!
Did you know the Latin letter “A”, which originates (probably) in Phoenician, was originally a drawing of the face of a bull? Letters tend to get flipped around in all sort of ways when they travel around the world, but let’s have a look at an upside-down a:
MOOOOO
MOOOOO
September 23, 2025 at 10:55 AM
Did you know the Latin letter “A”, which originates (probably) in Phoenician, was originally a drawing of the face of a bull? Letters tend to get flipped around in all sort of ways when they travel around the world, but let’s have a look at an upside-down a:
MOOOOO
MOOOOO
I also made a podcast if reading isn't your thing!
Utnapishtim, Noah, Gilgamesh; Sargon and Moses: A Look at Mesopotamian-Biblical Literary Parallels
YouTube video by Magnus_Arvid
www.youtube.com
September 21, 2025 at 11:01 AM
I also made a podcast if reading isn't your thing!
I am about to embark on a PhD at the University of Bergen, Norway.
I'll look into how emotions and expressions of emotions relate to total devotion and radical religion in the interreligious and highly competitive religious and intellectual environs the Eastern Mediterranean. Here's a lil intro!
I'll look into how emotions and expressions of emotions relate to total devotion and radical religion in the interreligious and highly competitive religious and intellectual environs the Eastern Mediterranean. Here's a lil intro!
The Power of Character
Devotion and Conflict, Love and War
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:48 AM
I am about to embark on a PhD at the University of Bergen, Norway.
I'll look into how emotions and expressions of emotions relate to total devotion and radical religion in the interreligious and highly competitive religious and intellectual environs the Eastern Mediterranean. Here's a lil intro!
I'll look into how emotions and expressions of emotions relate to total devotion and radical religion in the interreligious and highly competitive religious and intellectual environs the Eastern Mediterranean. Here's a lil intro!
Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
We often think of these as separate entities, but how separate are they? Or maybe rather, how separate were they? And can we learn something from re-learning the history of how these three religions developed?
We often think of these as separate entities, but how separate are they? Or maybe rather, how separate were they? And can we learn something from re-learning the history of how these three religions developed?
Study Spotlight: the Religious Roots of Europe
A Look at Late Antiquity and the 'Parting of Ways': Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Judaism, Christianity, Islam.
We often think of these as separate entities, but how separate are they? Or maybe rather, how separate were they? And can we learn something from re-learning the history of how these three religions developed?
We often think of these as separate entities, but how separate are they? Or maybe rather, how separate were they? And can we learn something from re-learning the history of how these three religions developed?
The story of a 6th-7th century Yemenite Rabbi who taught the Torah in Mosques in Medina, knew two of the earliest caliphs, and in his 70ies converted to what he considered the faith of Moses. What was Judaism and Islam 1400 years ago?
Ka'ab al-Ahbar: The Rabbi Muslim
"Borrowing" Amongst the Children of Abraham, Part 1
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:16 AM
The story of a 6th-7th century Yemenite Rabbi who taught the Torah in Mosques in Medina, knew two of the earliest caliphs, and in his 70ies converted to what he considered the faith of Moses. What was Judaism and Islam 1400 years ago?
Did the Roman government invent the cross?
Who chose it as a symbol for Christianity?
Can you read the Bible as a historic document without obscuring history even more?
If you didn’t get a chance, check out my little discussion with / tafsîr / exegesis on KRS-ONE’s “The Truth”!
Who chose it as a symbol for Christianity?
Can you read the Bible as a historic document without obscuring history even more?
If you didn’t get a chance, check out my little discussion with / tafsîr / exegesis on KRS-ONE’s “The Truth”!
The Cross: A Discourse with KRS-One
A Stream of Consciousness on the Symbol of the Cross, Reading Holy Scripture, and Examples of Good and Bad Polemics
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:14 AM
Did the Roman government invent the cross?
Who chose it as a symbol for Christianity?
Can you read the Bible as a historic document without obscuring history even more?
If you didn’t get a chance, check out my little discussion with / tafsîr / exegesis on KRS-ONE’s “The Truth”!
Who chose it as a symbol for Christianity?
Can you read the Bible as a historic document without obscuring history even more?
If you didn’t get a chance, check out my little discussion with / tafsîr / exegesis on KRS-ONE’s “The Truth”!
The Islamic history of ideas!
Where did those enlightenment thinkers get all that Aristotle from? Why is it called “alcohol”? What does Judaism and Islam have in common when it comes to Greek philosophy, working with divine revelation, and interpreting scripture?
And what about Mesopotamia?
Where did those enlightenment thinkers get all that Aristotle from? Why is it called “alcohol”? What does Judaism and Islam have in common when it comes to Greek philosophy, working with divine revelation, and interpreting scripture?
And what about Mesopotamia?
Falsafa, Fiqh, wa Kalām II: Islamic Thought, Contextualized for Cowpokes and Varangians
Part II: Islamic Philosophy, Jurisprudence, and Theology, a Crash Course
open.substack.com
September 21, 2025 at 10:13 AM
The Islamic history of ideas!
Where did those enlightenment thinkers get all that Aristotle from? Why is it called “alcohol”? What does Judaism and Islam have in common when it comes to Greek philosophy, working with divine revelation, and interpreting scripture?
And what about Mesopotamia?
Where did those enlightenment thinkers get all that Aristotle from? Why is it called “alcohol”? What does Judaism and Islam have in common when it comes to Greek philosophy, working with divine revelation, and interpreting scripture?
And what about Mesopotamia?