Associate Professor, Department of the Study of Religion, Faculty of Theology, University of Aarhus

Project: "Protestantism and modernity."

My personal research interest concentrates upon the theme "Protestantism and modernity" . The issue has empirical as well as normative aspects. The thesis is that Christianity in its protestant form has contributed to creating the secular cultural situation on whose terms it has to formulate itself today. This process – in its dialectical paradoxicality – may in some respects have been painful, but it has also opened up for possibilities of reformulation of convincing authenticity. It is likely that other religious traditions in modernity can and must undergo similar processes of enlightenment to secure their own forceless reproduction. Whatever the circumstances, development of self-reflexive mentalities seems to be a central precondition for the possibility of a peaceful democratic coexistence.