Oliver Krüger

Oliver Krüger (born 1973) is a German professor in Religious studies at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland).

From 1994 to 1999 he studied sociology, classical archaeology, and comparative religion at the University of Bonn. In 2003, he graduated there with a PhD in religious studies. His thesis was the first in-depth study of posthumanism and transhumanism that shed light on the philosophical, religious, and cultural contexts of these utopias. In 2004 the thesis was awarded by the German Association for the History of Religion.

Following his Ph.D. he worked on the significance of the Internet for the Wicca movement in a research project at the University of Heidelberg. From 2005 to 2007 Krüger served as visiting lecturer and visiting research fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University while exploring the alternative funeral culture in the United States, especially the Funeral Consumer's Alliance.

In 2007 Krüger was appointed to the chair for the Study of Religions (Religionswissenschaft) at Fribourg University, from 2011 to 2014 he was president of the Swiss Association for the Study of Religion. In 2012/13 he was invited as fellow to the International Centre for Advanced Studies Morphomata at the University of Cologne (Germany).

His research is focused mainly on the relation of religion and (new) media and of religion and science, especially in regard of the concepts of progress and evolution. In addition, Krüger contributes to debates on the theory of religion. In particular, he considers a paradigm shift to have taken place in the study of religions: from an Aristotelian paradigm that seeks to universally define the nature of religion to a relational paradigm that understands religion in its social, historical, and cultural contexts. Provided by Wikipedia