
Dr. habil. Mirella Klomp
Mirella Klomp is a Dutch Protestant (Lutheran) theologian specializing in practical theology, more specifically in the field of ritual and liturgical studies. Her research, in which the quest for the sacred is central, is usually located at the intersections of lived religion and culture. Her previous research topics 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). With her team, she currently prepares an intra- and interdisciplinary research project focusing on ground/land, faith, God and church and the relationship between them. All her research is characterized by an in-depth interdisciplinary approach.
Mirella Klomp received her PhD from the Protestant Theological University (2009) and earned the degree of Habilitation from the Faculty of Theology at the University of Bern, Switzerland (2020).
She currently works as Associate Professor of Practical Theology at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam. She has chaired the regular meetings of this chair since 2020. She is also a board member of the Institute for Ritual and Liturgical Studies.
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).