I am interested in how and why rituals, sacrality, Christian heritage, and values and practices originating in the religious sphere surface in the secular sphere.

1) Care. What does the transition from chaplaincy and diaconal care to spiritual and mission-based social care imply? As a follow-up to the ZonMw research network with street pastors, I developed a research project on the work of a faith-based Tilburg center for informal community care. It is embedded in Cost Action Program 20107 Connecting Theory and Practical Issues of Migration and Religious Diversity.

2) Popular culture. How are the social worlds of religions and of comics interrelated? How do religions use comics?  How are religions represented in comics? How does the use of  comics function as a functional alternative for religion? I edited an anthology with the title: Comics, culture and religion: Faith imagined (Bloomsbury Academic 2024). I also did research on theater and events, such as the St. Martin's Day Parade in Utrecht (Sociology of Religion 2024)

3) Public Domain. How is liquidizing religion present in the public domain? With prof. Peter Achterberg  (TSB) en Suzanne Klein Schaarsberg (TSB), I established CRiPS, Center for Religion in the Public Sphere, guided by a cultural sociological approach and the liquidation theory (De Groot 2018) in particular.

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- 2024 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 Sociology of Worldviews and Public Mental Health at Tilburg University. (KSGV Chair)

2024-present Associate Professor Department Religion and Practice at Tilburg School of Catholic Theology

2025 - present (with Peter Achterberg (TSB) and Suzanne Klein Schaarsberg (TSB)) coordinator Center for Religion in the Public Sphere

(with prof. Anke Liefbroer:) Jedidja van Boven MA, Those Who Help Themselves: Conceptualizing the Self at the Intersection of Coaching and Religion 

From 2025/2026 onwards, I will be teaching Religion in Late Modernity (MA Theology), Empirical Research Methods (MA Christianity and Society), Catholic Social Thought in Contemporary Society (MA Christianity and Society) and writing: Concluding Essay (Premaster Christianity and Society) and Thesis Seminar (Master Christianity and Society). 

Click here for my courses.