Curriculum

Employment:

• Professor, Research Unit for User Perspectives and Community-Based Interventions, Institute of Public Health, The Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark, extensive research and teaching experience in the health sciences (from 2012-14 50%), 2006-
• Professor of Spiritual Care, Clinic and Policlinic of Palliative Care, LMU, Munich (50%), extensive research and teaching experience in Spiritual Care, 2013-14
• Fellow at Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (50%), 2012-13
• Post-doc, financed by H. Lundbeck A/S, 2002-06
• Visiting professor, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, extensive teaching experience in theology, especially ecumenical and fundamental theology, 2000-04
• Visiting professor, Angelicum University, Rome, 2001
• Editor, Scandinavian section of Vatican Radio, producer of over 25 programs on theological and ethical issues, 2000-02

Education: 

• Doctoral dissertation (ThD) at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome on the thesis "Christian Prophecy - Its Preconditions, Function, and Status in the Church", published in 2007 with OUP (see List of Publications), 2001
• Proficiency Exam, Cambridge University, 1999
• Advanced Expository Writing, Harvard Summer School, 1998
• Master’s Degree at the Divinity School of the University of Copenhagen, 1997

Research:

• Co-ordinator of project: Physician Characteristics in Various Cultures – A Comparative Study of the Impact of Values on Communication and Ethics in Physicians in Diverse Cultures, with Prof. Eckhard Frick (Faculty of Medicine, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich), Prof. Klaus Baumann, Prof. Arndt Büssing et al, (establishment of international data pool on physician values, based on existing data and ongoing data collection using newly developed survey, currently 9 nations - www.nersh.org), 2012-
• The Support of Psychosocial and Spiritual Needs in Medicine, with Dean, Prof. Klaus Baumann (the-ology, Freiburg) and Prof. Arndt Büssing (medicine, Witten-Herdecke), Interdisciplinary Research Group at Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (www.nersh.org), 2012-14
• Translation and Validation of the “Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe)”, followed by its employment in a sample of Danish palliative patients, with PhD Peter la Cour and PhD fellow Heidi Frølund, 2012-14
• Religion and Aging, assessing and publishing on the basis of data from the European SHARE aging cohort-2010 that includes various European and particular Danish foci on spirituality and aging, with Ass. Prof. Karen Andersen-Ranberg and Post.doc Dorte Hvidtjørn, SDU, 2011-2014
• Risk Aversion, Health Behaviour and Religiousness: Analysis Using a Sample of Danish Twins, with Prof. Jytte Seested Nielsen (Newcastle University Business School), Prof. Mickael Bech (Centre of Health Economics Research) & Prof. Kaare Christensen (Epidemiology, SDU), 2011-2014
• Religious and Spiritual Issues in a Sample of Danish Twins, with Prof. Kaare Christensen, Post-doc Dorte Hvidtjørn, SDU, et.al., 2007-14
• Conceptual Issues in Research on Meaning Making Coping and Religious Coping in Secular Socie-ties: Existential Issues, Spirituality, and Religiosity, with PhD Peter La Cour, 2007-12
• Risk for Cancer, Myocardial Infarction and Psychiatric Disease among Members of Religious Societies - a Danish Cohort Study. Epidemiological study, collaboration with Prof. Christoffer Johansen, the Danish Cancer Society, et. al., 2004-
• Theological Perspectives on Religion and Coping, financed by H. Lundbeck A/S, 2002-06
• Christian Prophecy – its Preconditions, Function, and Status in the Church, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, 1997-2001

Other relevant appointments:

• Visiting scholar of Spiritual Care, Clinic for Palliative Medicine, LMU, Munich, 2015-2018
• Non-resident Faculty Scholar at Duke University, Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, Duke University Medical Center, 2012-
• Initiator and coordinator for Interdisciplinary Nordic Network for Research in Faith and Health (www.faith-health.org), 2011-
• Member of the editing board of Zeitschrift für Spiritual Care, 2010-2018
• Reviewer for Oxford University Press, the Medical Journal of Australia and other journals
• Initiator & coordinator of Interdisciplinary Danish Network for Research in Faith & Health, 2007-2011
• Visiting fellow at the Theological Faculty of the University of Notre Dame, IN, USA, 2005-06
• Visiting fellow at Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, 2004-05
• Visiting fellow at the Divinity School at Duke University as well as the Duke Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health, 2004
• Coordinator of International Ecumenical Bridgettine Center, from 2003 board member, 1999-04
• Stipend at the Danish Academy in Rome, 1998-99
• Awarded Gold Medal of University of Copenhagen for dissertation on Christian Prophecy, 1997

Language skills:

• Speaks, reads and writes: Danish, German, English, French, Italian and Swedish
• Speaks and reads: Spanish
• Reads: Latin, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Portuguese

Research Interests

• Spiritual Care
• Religious Coping
• Faith and Health
• Theodicy
• Patient belief in divine intervention