My research interest is guided by the question: how are Christian traditions transformed and continued in ecclesial contexts, in secular spheres and on the boundaries between the religious and the secular?

Currently, I am working on four projects:

1) The development of fluid ways of being church.

2) The organizational dynamics of chaplaincy and mental health care.

3) The construction of Catholic Social Teaching and its contribution to and critique of capitalism.

4) The use of religious heritage in popular culture, in particular comics and events.

1991-1995 Lecturer in Sociology and Sociology of Religion at Katholieke Theologische Universiteit, Utrecht

1996-1998 Lecturer in Sociology of Religion at Universitair Centrum voor Theologie en Pastoraat te Heerlen (University of Nijmegen)

1996-1997 Teacher in Religion and Sociology at Ashram College, Alphen aan den Rijn
Project assistant at the Faculty of Theology, University of Amsterdam
Coach youth ministry St. Bavo, Haarlem

1998-2002 Consultant for Church Development in the Diocese of Rotterdam

2000-2002 Lecturer in Sociology of Religion, Sociology of Education and Congregational Studies at Fontys Hogescholen, Faculty of Theology,Amsterdam

2002- present Assistant Professor in Practical Theology at Tilburg School of Catholic Theology

 2008-2010  research project 'New Forms of We' at the Dominican Study Center for Theolology and Society

2019- present Professor Religion and Public Mental Health at Tilburg University. (KSGV Chair)

Click here for my courses.

Toon van Gestel MA, Meaning and reception of the Vatican II Declaration Gravissimum Educationis in the Netherlands (1965-2015)