Understanding Religion

Ulrich Riegel is Professor for Religious Education within the Seminar of Catholic Theology at Siegen University, Germany. His main research is on both the empirical analysis of religious teaching and learning and the empirical analysis of religiosity. Recent research projects address the process of disaffiliation from the churches and how teachers deal with religious heterogeneity in religious education.
ISNI: 0000 0000 7643 2345

Stefan Heil is director of the Institute of Religious Education (Diocese of Würzburg, Germany) and holds an Extraordinary Professorship on Religious Education at the Julius-Maximilian-University Wüurzburg, Germany. His main research interests are professionalism and habitus of teachers, qualitative empirical methodology and hermeneutics, competence-orientated teacher -training.
ISNI: 0000 0003 5803 7642

Boris Kalbheim is Lecturer at the Chair of Religious Education in the Catholic Faculty of the Julius -Maximilian-University, Würzburg, Germany. His main research interests are interreligious learning, non -denominational youth and university didactics. His recent research project addresses the forming of identity in interreligious contexts.
ISNI: 0000 0000 1279 0135

Alexander Unser is Assistant Professor for Catholic Theology and Religious Education at TU Dortmund University. His research focuses on socio-structural aspects of religious education, on interreligious learning, and on the political dimension of religiosity.
ISNI: 0000 0003 5611 2936

Francis -Vincent Anthony is Professor of Practical Theology at the Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. His areas of theoretical and empirical research are inculturation, interculturality, interreligious dialogue, human rights, migration, religious education, youth ministry, and leadership.

Pål Ketil Botvar is Professor of Sociology of Religion at the University of Agder, Norway. His main research is on values and religiosity in the Nordic countries and in Europe.

Anton A. Bucher, Jahrgang 1960, lehrt an der Universität Salzburg Religionspädagogik und Erziehungswissenschaft. Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten zählen Psychologie der Spiritualität und des Glücks, religiöse Entwicklung und ethische Bildung. Er ist Verfasser zahlreicher Bücher, Vater von sechs Kindern.
ISNI: 0000 0000 5510 3446

Tobias Faix is Professor for Practical Theology at the CVJM-Hochschule in Kassel with a focus on community pedagogy, intercultural and empirical theology. He is also an Associate Professor at the State University of South Africa and chair of the research institute Empirica. Research Institute for Youth, Culture and Religion. His main research focus is on the religiosity of highly-religious adolescents and the processes of transformation recent parishes are undergoing in modern society.

Leslie J. Francis is Professor of Religions and Education at the University of Warwick, England, and Director of the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit. His main research is within the fields of religious education, psychology of religion, and practical and empirical theology. His recent research has focused on clergy wellbeing, cathedral studies, and church schools.

Stefan Heil is director of the Institute of Religious Education (Diocese of Würzburg, Germany) and holds an Extraordinary Professorship on Religious Education at the Julius-Maximilian-University Wüurzburg, Germany. His main research interests are professionalism and habitus of teachers, qualitative empirical methodology and hermeneutics, competence-orientated teacher -training.
ISNI: 0000 0003 5803 7642

Boris Kalbheim is Lecturer at the Chair of Religious Education in the Catholic Faculty of the Julius -Maximilian-University, Würzburg, Germany. His main research interests are interreligious learning, non -denominational youth and university didactics. His recent research project addresses the forming of identity in interreligious contexts.
ISNI: 0000 0000 1279 0135

Maria Klingenberg is Lecturer in the Social Sciences of Religion with Didactics at the Department of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research mainly concerns youth and religion in a Nordic context. Her recent research involves a quantitative study on youth and religion in Sweden as well as participation in the research project Young Adults and Religion from a Global Perspective (YARG), a comparative mixed-method study involving university students from 13 countries. She is also an editor of YOUNG: Nordic Journal of Youth Research.

Elina Kuusisto works as an Associate Professor at the University of Humanistic Studies, Utrecht, the Netherlands, and as a Senior Researcher at the University of Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a Title of Docent at the University of Helsinki and serves as a Coordinator of EARLI SIG 19 Religions and Worldviews in Education. She is studying moral education, religious education and teacher education, with a special interest on ethical sensitivity, purpose in life and growth mindset.

Ursula McKenna is Research Fellow within the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit at the University of Warwick, England. Her research engages with both qualitative and quantitative methods within the empirical science of religious education. Her recent research has focused on studies arising from investigation into the attitudes of young people toward living in religiously diverse societies.
ISNI: 0000 0000 6685 2290

Per Pettersson is Professor of Sociology of Religion at Karlstad University, Sweden and Guest Professor and Director of the research program The Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy at Uppsala University, Sweden. His research is mainly on majority religion in Sweden covering a broad range of issues, e.g. religion and state, religion and welfare, religion in state institutions, minority-majority relationships, religion and crisis / disaster, religious institutions from a service quality perspective, churches confirmation work.

Ulrich Riegel is Professor for Religious Education within the Seminar of Catholic Theology at Siegen University, Germany. His main research is on both the empirical analysis of religious teaching and learning and the empirical analysis of religiosity. Recent research projects address the process of disaffiliation from the churches and how teachers deal with religious heterogeneity in religious education.
ISNI: 0000 0000 7643 2345

Friedrich Schweitzer, Dr., Professor für Praktische Theologie/Religionspädagogik, Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät, Universität Tübingen. Friedrich Schweitzer is professor of practical theology / religious education at the Protestant Faculty of Theology, Tübingen, Germany.
ISNI: 0000 0001 2281 9082

Anders Sjöborg is Associate Professor in the Sociology of Religion at the Department of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden. His research interests include youth and religion as well as Religious Education from a sociological perspective. His recent research includes the project Teaching Religion in Late Modern Sweden, funded by the Swedish Research Council, as well as participation in the international research programme Religion and Human Rights.

Carl Sterkens is Associate Professor for Pastoral Theology and Empirical Religious Studies at Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. His recent cross-religious comparative research focuses on interreligious relationships, the consequences of religiosity for latent and manifest conflicts (versus societal cohesion), and the relation between religion and human rights attitudes.

Kirsi Tirri is a Professor of Education and Research Director at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and Department of Education at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is also a visiting Professor at St. John's University, New York, USA and University of Tallinn in Estonia. She has published widely in international educational journals and books on teacher education, moral and religious education and talent development. She also serves on the Editorial Boards of 13 educational journals.

Alexander Unser is Assistant Professor for Catholic Theology and Religious Education at TU Dortmund University. His research focuses on socio-structural aspects of religious education, on interreligious learning, and on the political dimension of religiosity.
ISNI: 0000 0003 5611 2936

Johannes A. van der Ven was Professor for Practical Theology / Empirical Theology at the Catholic Faculty of the Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and from 2010 on associate researcher for religion and human rights at this institution. Besides his important impact on the field of Practical Theology, he is known as one of the founding fathers of Empirical Theology. The volume Entwurf einer Empirischen Theologie (Practical Theology: An Empirical Approach) from 1990 is still groundbreaking in methodological terms. His research covers a huge topical spectrum reaching from God concepts to the relationship between religion and human rights. His enormous scientific output has been awarded by an honorary doctor of Lund University, Sweden, in 1998 and the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands in 2001. Johannes van der Ven passed away in 2019.

Dr. Wolfram Weiße ist Seniorprofessor für Religionspädagogik und internationale Theologie mit Schwerpunkt interreligiöser Dialog sowie Direktor der Akademie der Weltreligionen der Universität Hamburg. Arbeitsschwerpunkte: empirische und konzeptionelle Forschung zum interreligiösen Dialog in Schule und Gesellschaft, kontextuelle dialogische Theologie, Religionen und Bildung in Europa und Südafrika.
ISNI: 0000 0001 1060 3129

Joachim Willems is a Professor for Religious Education at the Institute of Protestant Theology with the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, Germany. His main field of research is interreligious learning and diversity, conceptualisation and evaluation of religious and interreligious competences as well as religion and religious education in post-soviet Russia.