Hans Gerald HÖDL
Hans Gerald HÖDL
Professorial Research Fellow (2020–2024)
Associate Professor Emeritus
Hans Gerald Hödl is Associate Professor (2009) Emeritus of Religious Studies. He holds an M.A. (magister theologiae) in Catholic Theology (1987) and a Ph.D. (doctor philosophiae) in Philosophy (1990), both from the University of Vienna. In 2003, he obtained his Habilitation in Cultural Studies from Humboldt University, Berlin. His main areas of research are West African and Afro-American Religions, Mormonism, Ritual Studies, Theory of Sacrifice, Critique of Religion (Friedrich Nietzsche), and Aesthetics of Religion. He teaches on a variety of subjects, including, among others, Approaches to the Study of Religion (he has also published some essays on that topic), Introduction to Christianity and – together with two colleagues – the General History of Religions. He has taught at the Universities of Bratislava, Brno, Cracow, Dortmund, and Szeged as well as Humboldt-University Berlin. Outside Religious Studies, he enjoys music, literature, hiking, and gardening. His instrument is the drum-set (unfortunately, he could not make a living from that).