Prof. dr. Mirella Klomp
Mirella Klomp is professor of Practical Theology (Worship & Formation) at the Protestant Theological University in Utrecht, the Netherlands. She specializes in practical theology, specifically in the field of ritual and liturgical studies. Her research, which focuses on the quest for the sacred, is usually at the intersections of lived religion and culture.
Following her doctorate at the Protestant Theological University (2009) and habilitation at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Bern, Switzerland (2020), she has held the Chair of Practical Theology (Worship & Formation) at PThU since April 2024 and is head of the chair group of the same name. She is a research fellow in the Department of Practical Theology and Missiology of the Faculty of Theology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
Klomp is initiator and project leader of the iconic PThU Soil Project (2023-2028), an intra- and interdisciplinary research project focusing on (agricultural) land, faith, God and church and the relationship between them. Previous research themes have been liturgy and music in intercultural contexts, music in the public domain (especially passion performances) as well as rituals and ritualized practices of eating (meals). All of her research is characterized by a profound interdisciplinary approach.
As professor, she further fulfills the role of scientific director of the Institute for Ritual and Liturgical Studies (IRiLiS), the inter-university, internationally renowned platform that gathers and disseminates knowledge in the field of ritual, through publications and symposia.
Her areas of expertise include:
- the role of materiality in faith (particularly with regard to earth, body, food, meals, music)
- farmers, (agricultural) land, faith and God and the relationship between them
- public theology, religion and media
- ritual and Christian music in Dutch late modern network culture (including The Passion)
- Lutheran theology of the 21st century
- international and migrant churches in Amsterdam Southeast
- Christian worship in Ghanaian culture
- (practical-theological) methodology
She is the author of numerous articles and two monographs that were both published in an international book series:
- The Sound of Worship. Liturgical performance of Ghanaian Methodists and Surinamese Lutherans in Amsterdam (= Liturgia Condenda 26), Leuven, Peeters Publishers 2011;
- Playing On. Restaging the Passion after the Death of God (Theology in Practice 10), Leiden, Royal Brill 2020), Open Access
Mirella Klomp is an ordained minister in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (since 2012) and member of the General Advisory Board for the General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (since 2022).
