prof. dr. Andre van der Braak

Full Professor, Faculty of Religion and Theology, Beliefs and Practices

Full Professor, CLUE+

Personal information

I am professor of comparative philosophy of religion (since 2021). From 2012 to 2021 I was professor of Buddhist philosophy in dialogue with other world views. Since 2023 I am the MA programs director at the Faculty of Religion and Theology. I lead the research group Transformations of Religiosity.

Apart from my academic activities, I am also a Zen teacher at Zen in Baarn (see www.avdbraak.nl).

Research

From 2013 to 2018 I was project leader on an NWO-funded research project on multiple religious belonging. My current research focuses on the encounter between non-Western spirituality and Western modernity. On this topic, my most important publications have been Enlightenment Blues: My Years with an American Guru (2003); Goeroes en charisma: het riskante pad van leraar en leerling (2006); Nietzsche and Zen: Self-overcoming without a Self (2011); Reimagining Zen in a Secular Age: Charles Taylor and Zen Buddhism in the West (2020), Transforming Buddhism (2021; co-editor with Paul van der Velde and Tristan Letzer) and Ayahuasca as Liquid Divinity: An Ontological Approach (2023).

Teaching

I teach or have taught the following courses:

- History of world philosophies
- Comparing theologies and philosophies of religion
- Spirituality Today
- Niets worden en niets weten: on Christian and Buddhist mysticism
- Mindfulness
- New religious movements
- Multiple religious belonging

Ancillary activities