Markus Davidsen is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Study of Religion.

More information about Markus Davidsen

CV and full list of publications

Fields of interest

My research interests cluster around five areas:

1. Fiction-based religion, such as Tolkien spirituality and Star Wars-based Jediism.
2. Religious narratives: plot structures and the 'affordances' of religious narratives, i.e. how they can become persuasive and influence belief, practice, and experience.
3. Religious belief, thinking, and meaning-making, especially under the conditions of modernity.
4. Method and theory in the study of religion, with a focus on comparison, explanation, and conceptual modelling, as well as the research history of the study of religion.
5. Religion education, including curriculum development and study-of-religion-based didactics.

Supervision

I supervise BA, MA, and PhD theses in the following fields: sociology of religion; contemporary, new, and alternative religion; method, theory, and research history in the study of religion; and religious education. I am interested in supervising projects on religion (regardless of empirical focus) that make extensive use of cognitive, semiotic, and/or narratological theory.

Education

• PhD (cum laude) in the Study of Religion, Leiden University (2014). Dissertation title: “The Spiritual Tolkien Milieu: A Study of Fiction-based Religion”. A limited number of printed copies of the dissertation are available for sale: 15€ for LU students, 30€ for others.
• MA in the Study of Religion, Aarhus University, Denmark (2008).
• Erasmus exchange student, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (2007).
• BA, in the Study of Religion with a Minor in Cognitive Psychology and Neuropsychology, Aarhus University, Denmark (2005).

Employment

• University Lecturer (universitair docent), Sociology of Religion, Leiden University (2015–).
• Teaching Associate (docent), Sociology of Religion and New Religions, Leiden University (2011–2015).
• PhD candidate, Aarhus University and Leiden University (2009–2012).
• Teaching Assistant, Aarhus University (2004–2007).

Teaching activities

I teach various courses in sociology of religion, new religions/alternative spirituality, theory in the study of religion, and religion education. In the academic year 2026/2027, I teach the following courses:

• Tools and Theories in the Study of Religion: Historical, Cognitive and Social-Scientific Approaches (MA)
• Reflectie op het schoolvak Levensbeschouwing en Religie (MA)
• Religie, levensbeschouwing en burgerschap in het onderwijs (BA/MA)

Key publications

• Davidsen, Markus Altena and Michaël van der Meer. 2026. Religieuze teksten en rituelen onderzoeken in de klas: Een religiewetenschappelijke Vakmethodiek. Leiden: Leiden University Press.
• Davidsen, Markus Altena (ed.). 2026. Bronnen van zin: perspectieven op religieuze verschijnselen. Inspiratieboeken van Expertisecentrum LERVO 2. Zwolle: Ten Brink Uitgevers.
• Davidsen, Markus Altena (ed.). 2025. Nieuwe werelden openen: Perspectieven op Levensbeschouwing en Religie. Inspiratieboeken van Expertisecentrum LERVO 1. Zwolle: Ten Brink Uitgevers.
• Davidsen, Markus Altena. 2020. “Theo van Baaren’s Systematic Science of Religion Revisited: The Current Crisis in Dutch Study of Religion and a Way Out”, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion 74(3): 213–241. Target article in theme issue ‘Religious Studies in the Netherlands: Debating the Field’s Future”.
• Davidsen, Markus Altena (ed.). 2018. Narrative and Belief: The Religious Affordance of Supernatural Fiction. London: Routledge.

Research articles

• 2027. “Teaching Students to Toy with Theory: The MA Course Tools and Theories in the Study of Religion at Leiden University.” Numen: International Review for History of Religions 74(1).
• 2023. “Religious Uses of Fantasy Fiction.” In Routledge Handbook of Fiction and Belief, edited by Alison James, François Lavocat, and Akihiro Kubo, 454–466. London & New York: Routledge.
• 2022. “De perspectiefgerichte benadering: Rationale voor het landelijk kerncurriculum levensbeschouwing en religie van Expertisecentrum LERVO.” Religie & Samenleving 17(3): 198–226.
• 2021. ““There Was No Dutch School of Phenomenology of Religion”: Academic Implacability and Historical Accidents – An Interview with Jan G. Platvoet (The Netherlands).” In Global Phenomenologies of Religion: An Oral History in Interviews, edited by Satoko Fujiwara, David Thurfjell, and Steven Engler, 245–276. Sheffield: Equinox.
• 2020. “Studying Religions as Narrative Cultures: Angel Experience Narratives in the Netherlands and Some Ideas for a Narrative Research Programme for the Study of Religion.” In Narrative Cultures and the Aesthetics of Religion: Storytelling—Imagination—Reception, edited by Dirk Johannsen, Anja Kirsch, and Jens Kreinath, 91–122. Leiden: Brill. (With Bastiaan van Rijn).
• 2017. “The Jedi Community: History and Folklore of a Fiction-based Religion.” New Directions in Folklore 15(1/2): 7–49.
• 2016. “The Religious Affordance of Fiction: A Semiotic Approach.” Religion 46(4): 521–549.
• 2013. “Fiction-based Religion: Conceptualising a New Category against History-based Religion and Fandom.”  Culture and Religion: An Interdisciplinary Journal 14(4): 378–395.
• 2012. “Future Directions in the Sociology of Non-institutional Religion.”  Implicit Religion 15(4): 553–570.
• 2012. “What is Wrong with Pagan Studies?”  Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 24(2): 183–199.

Grants and awards

• Comenius Teaching Fellowship. “Een religiewetenschappelijke vakmethodiek voor de leraren­opleiding godsdienst/levensbeschouwing: Wereldgericht onderwijs voor een levensbeschouwelijk diverse samenleving”, (EUR 53,425), 2023–2025.
• Impact Prize Faculty of Humanities, for my work on revitalizing religion and worldview education in Dutch secondary schools (EUR 1,000), 2021.
• Science Communication Award, Pilotfonds Wetenschapscommunicatie door wetenschappers: Gewaar­deerd!, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) (EUR 10,000), 2021.
• Gerardus van der Leeuw PhD Dissertation Award, dissertation award of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion, awarded biennially for the best doctoral dissertation in the Study of Religion defended at a Dutch university (EUR 650), 2016.
• Danish Research Council for Independent Research (Humanities), 3-year international PhD scholarship (EUR 184,485), 2009–2012.
• Arenberg-Coimbra Group Prize for Erasmus Students (EUR 5,000), 2009.

Administration and service to the profession

2024-. Research fellow, Vakdidactisch meesterschapsteam Levensbeschouwing en Religie.

2019- . Project leader, Expertisecentrum Levensbeschouwing en Religie in het Voortgezet Onderwijs (LERVO).

2012–2017. General secretary, Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG).

Activities