Photograph of Dr. Maren Freudenberg

Dr. Maren Freudenberg

Associate Professor Sociology of Religion & Associate Editor "Entangled Religions"

Senior Lecturer for the Sociology of Religion
Associate Editor Entangled Religions

Erasmus+ Coordinator Teaching Unit Religious Studies

Office Hours

Office hours by appointment (please e-mail me)

Areas of Research

Religion and Economy: Relationship between these two socially differentiated yet intertwined spheres, including from the perspective of the sociolgy of religion, history of religion, and economics

Religion and Modernity: religious authority and religious social forms; processes of institutionalization and differentiation

Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity: Worldwide growth, especially in Global South, as connected to social forms and religious worldview/beliefs/practices

Christianity in the USA: Evangelicals and Mainline Protestants; Latter-Day Saints (Mormons); American religion in the 20th century

Qualitative methods od data collection and analysis: interviews, observation, coding/categorizing, Grounded Theory, text/image sequence analysis, qualitative content analysis, discourse analysis

Since April 2022: Senior lecturer for the Sociology of Religion

April 2021 - March 2022: Interim Professor Study of Religions

January 2021 - March 2021: Academic Councilor

November 2019 - December 2020: Scientific Coordinator of the Graduate School Religious Plurality and Its Regulation in the Region (RePliR)

since April: 2017 Associate Editor of Entangled Religions, Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Religious Contact and Transfer

September 2016 - November 2019: Research associate at CERES

April – August 2016: Researcher and Lecturer, John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

March 2016: Dr. phil., Sociology (summa cum laude), Graduate School of North American Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
Dissertation: Community and Individual in Late Modern Religion: Mainline Protestantism Between Tradition and Innovation. The Case of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

February 2013 – May 2015: Empirical research in Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA

October 2012 - March 2016: Doctoral Candidate at the Graduate School of North American
Studies, Freie Universität Berlin

December 2011 - September 2012: Office management, Department of Southeast Asian Studies,
Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

April 2010 - November 2011: Public Affairs Consultant, dimap communications Berlin

June 2009 - March 2010: Event management assistant, Training for International
Diplomats, Auswärtiges Amt Berlin

February 2008 - May 2009: Freelance journalist

January 2008: M.A. (Magistra Artium), English Language and Literature, Political Science, Cultural Anthropology, University of Trier, Germany
M.A. Thesis: Images of the Self and Other in Chinese Canadian Literature

August – October 2007: Research stay at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

October 2006: Ethnographic methods training with the department of Cultural Anthropology at the University of Trier, Germany, in Vietnam

Summer Semester 2023

"The Black Church in Past and Present: African American Christianity as a Multidimensional Religious Tradition", B.A./M.A. (Religious Studies, Sociology, History, North American Studies)

"Qualitative Empirical Methods in the Social Scientific Study of Religion", B.A./M.A. (Social Sciences)

Past courses

"American Mormons: An Introduction", B.A./M.A. (Religious Studies, North American Studies)

"Introduction to the Religion and Economy nexus", B.A./M.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies, Economics)

"Theories and Approaches in the Social Scientific Study of Religion", B.A./M.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"Qualitative Empirical Methods in the Social Scientific Study of Religion", B.A./M.A. (Social Sciences)

"Global Charismatic Christianity", B.A./M.A. (Religious Studies)

"Theories and Approaches in the Study of Religion", B.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"Qualitative Social Scientific Methods in the Study of Religions", B.A. (Social Sciences)

"Evangelicals Yesterday and Today", B.A./M.A. course (Religious Studies)

"Religion and Gender - Perspectives on Historical and Contemporary Processes of Transformation", B.A. and M.A. (Religious Studies, Gender Studies)

"Religion and Modernity: Europe, North America, the Middle East", B.A. lecture (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"Religious Authority Online and Offline in Christianity and Islam", B.A. and M.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"The Economics of Religion", B.A. and M.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"Charismatic Religions in the USA and Western Europe: Theoretical and Empirical Approaches", B.A. (Religious Studies)

"Mapping Religion: Mapping Charismatic Churches in the Ruhr Area" B.A. Research Project Course (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"American Megachurches from Religious Studies and Theology Perspectives", B.A. and M.A. (Religious Studies, Theology)

"Faith and the Vote: Religion and Politics in the United States", B.A. and M.A. (History, Religious Studies)

"Made in the USA: Neocharismatic American Religions in North Rhine-Westphalia", B.A. and M.A. Research Project Course (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"On the Right End of the Spectrum: Conservative Religion in Contemporary America", M.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"The American Religious Landscape in the 21st Century", B.A. (Sociology, Religious Studies)

"Community and Individual in American Society“, M.A. (Sociology, Cultural Studies, North American Studies)

"Charismatic American Faith in Contemporary Germany”, M.A. Research Project Course (Sociology, Religious Studies)

“Protestant Faith in America Yesterday and Today”, B.A. (Sociology, Cultural Studies, North American Studies)

"American Protestantism in the Twenty-first Century”, B.A. (Sociology, Cultural Studies, North American Studies)

B.A./M.A. Colloquium (Religious Studies)

Selected Presentations

Radio and Podcast contributions:

DLF Kultur, 15.10.2023: „Der Heilige Geist kennt keine Hierarchien“ (Kirsten Dietrich), https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/der-heilige-geist-kennt-keine-hierarchien-autoritaet-in-evangelikalen-kirchen-dlf-kultur-807e788d-100.html

WDR 5, 08.10.2023: “Essen: Festival Billy Graham Evangelical Association” in Diesseits von Eden (Christina-Maria Purkert), https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/wdr5/wdr5-diesseits-von-eden-ganze-sendung/index.html

DLF Kultur, 25.09.2022: “Wunderglaube im Evangelikalismus“ (Kirsten Dietrich), https://ceres.rub.de/de/aktuelles/beitrag-im-deutschlandfunk-kultur-am-sonntag-25092022/

Classical Ideas Podcast, 16.09.2019: “Ep 133: Charismatic Religions and the Vineyard Movement w/ Dr. Maren Freudenberg”, https://classicalideaspodcast.libsyn.com/ep-133-charismatic-religions-and-the-vineyard-movement-w-dr-maren-freudenberg

Memberships

Research Associate of Center for Religious Studies , CERES Directorate and CERES Teaching

Involved Person of Study Advisory Board

Former Projects and Responsibilities

Project Management of Graduate School RePliR