Johannes A. van der Ven, PhD Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), Doctor honoris causa University of Lund (sweden), occupies the chair of comparative empirical science of religion, especially in relation to religion and human rights, at Radboud University Nijmegen. He is chair of the International Empirical Research Program ‘Religion and Human Rights’. He wrote 15 books in Dutch, German, and English, among which Entwurf einer empirischen Theologie (1990) [Practical Theology: An Empirical Approach (1993)], Suffering: Why for God's Sake?(together with H. Vossen) (1995), Ecclesiology in Context (1996), Formation of the Moral Self (1998), God Reinvented? (1998). Education for Reflective Ministry (1998), Is There a God of Human Rights (together with J.S. Dreyer and H.J.C. Pieterse) (2004). He edited 18 books, and published about 400 refereed articles in ten languages.