Mikael Rothstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1961-05-08)8 May 1961 (age 63) |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Occupation | Associate professor |
| Relatives | Klaus Rothstein [da] |
| Academic background | |
| Education | PhD |
| Alma mater | University of Copenhagen |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Historian |
| Sub-discipline | Religious studies |
| Institutions | University of Copenhagen |
Mikael Rothstein (born 8 May 1961) is anassociate professor ofreligious history at theUniversity of Copenhagen inCopenhagen,Denmark. He has authored several books on the topic of religion andnew religious movements.
Rothstein was born 8 May 1961 in Denmark. He earned his PhD in 1993 and became aLector at the University of Copenhagen in 2001.[1] He has been on the board of theDanish Association for the History of Religions (DAHR) and the editorial boards of the publicationsRenner Studies on New Religions (Aarhus University Press) andNye Religioner (Gyldendal).[2]
Rothstein has been called one of Denmark's top researchers innew religious movements,[3] and has been credited with making them a topic of scholarship.[1] Another area of scholarly interest isindigenous religions; he was the first researcher to describe thePenan people ofBorneo.[1]
Rothstein has been involved in some conflicts in the media. In 2007 he was criticized after defendingUngdomshuset.[1] In 2011 he was one of those criticizing the rephrasing of the mission of Denmark's state-owned broadcasting service,DR, to include promotingChristian values, which he called "a way of making us all hostages to a nationalist Christian project".[4][5] He has calledLars Hedegaard "an assailant" (Danish:en voldsmand), leading to criticism from other free speech advocates.[6] He has been described in a Christian periodical as "uncompromising [and] a wonderful, intelligent man who is both warm, caring and generous with praise for both colleagues and students"[1] and by another commentator in the same publication as demonstrating "one-sided bile" and "hatred" in his utterances concerning Christianity.[7] An opinion article in another newspaper likewise portrayed him as a hater of religion.[8]
Among books he has written or co-edited are:Belief Transformations: Some Aspects of the Relation between Science and Religion in Transcendental Meditation (TM) and the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) (1996),Secular Theories on Religion: Current Perspectives (2000) (co-author with Tim Jensen),New Age Religion and Globalization (2002),[9][10]New Religions in a Postmodern World (2003) (co-editor withReender Kranenborg) andThe Cambridge Companion to New Religious Movements (2012) (co-editor withOlav Hammer).[3][11][12][13]
Rothstein and his wife, Mie, have two children.[1] His brother,Klaus Rothstein [da], is a well known TV journalist.
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