Prof.dr. H.L. Murre-van den Berg – History of World Christianity

Function:
  • Full professor History of World Christianity

Telephone number: +31 (0)71 527 2581
E-Mail: h.l.murre@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Faculty / Department: Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen, Leids Instituut Godsdienstwetenschappen
Office Address: Witte Singel-complex
Matthias de Vrieshof 1
2311 BZ Leiden
Room number 203C
 
Personal Homepage: 69422.weblog.leidenuniv.nl
Academic weblog
Teaching
Prof. dr. Heleen Murre-van den Berg’s research is focused on so-called ‘non-western’ forms of Christianity, as they developed in the pre-modern and modern periods, in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These new forms of Christianity are characterized by a mix of both local and global elements, for which sociologists have coined the term ‘glocal’. In recent research on World Christianity, the varying local forms have received ample attention, ignoring or taking for granted the global developments and interactions. Murre-van den Berg, therefore, concentrates on the study of these multi-national and multi-local developments, as they took and take place in missions, in ecumenical organizations and in all kinds of informal exchanges. The Christianity of the Middle East is studied in detail. The varieties of oriental Christianity, on which were grafted new forms of Catholicism, Protestantism and Pentecostalism, represent World Christianity in both its local and global manifestations. Current projects include research on the Christianity of Iraq and Syria (especially concerning the Church of the East, Assyrian and Chaldean) and as well as on Christian views of the ‘Holy Land’, especially in connection to past and present relationships between Jews, Christians and Muslims.     Murre-van den Berg has been part of the Faculty since 1995, teaching a variety of classes on the history of World Christianity in Asia and Africa, as well as, in English, on the history of the Christian communities in the Middle East. She served two terms on the Board of the Faculty (1998-2000, 2004-2006), among others as Director of Studies. She contributes to the Bachelor programmes of World Religions, Christian Theology and Islamic Theology, as well as to several Master’s programmes in the Faculty of Humanities. She welcomes students who are interested to specialize, on the level of Bachelor, Master or Ph.D., in World Christianity or Middle Eastern Christianity.          
Currently she teaches the following courses:
  • Geschiedenis van het wereldchristendom (BA1) 
  • Rituelen en symbolen van het christendom (BA2/3) 
  • Wereldchristendom (BA 2/3)
  • Christian Communities in the Ottoman Empire (MA)
Books
  • (Editor) New Faith in Ancient Lands. Western Missions in the Middle East in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries [Studies in Christian Missions 32], ( Leiden: Brill, 2006); with two contributions by the editor: “Introduction” (1-17), and “William McClure Thomson’s The Land and the Book (1859): Pilgrimage and Mission in Palestine” (43-63).
  • With J.J. van Ginkel and T.M. van Lint (eds), Redefining Christian Identity. Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam [OCA 134], Louvain: Peeters 2005, 420pp; including two contributions: “Introduction” (vii-xiv.) and “The Church of the East in the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century: World Church or Ethnic Community?” (301-320).  
  • From a Spoken to a Written Language. The Introduction and Development of Literary Urmia Aramaic in the Nineteenth Century, Publication of the “De Goeje Fund” no. XXVIII, Leiden 1999 (slightly reworked edition of Ph.D. Leiden 1995). 
Editorships
  • Studies in Christian Mission (Brill, Leiden) 
  • The Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (Peeters, Louvain)