Gerardus (Gerard) van der Leeuw (18 March 1890 – 18 November 1950) was a Dutch historian and

philosopher of religion Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning ph ...

, ordained minister and politician. Gerard van der Leeuw studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

and

egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...

at Leiden University, in Göttingen and Berlin. He was promoted there to doctor of theology in Leiden in 1916. After graduation he was called as ordained minister in the Dutch Reformed Church ( Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk): in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

as candidate and subsequently in

's-Heerenberg s-Heerenberg is a city on the Dutch-German border, in the Province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It is located about 5 km north of the German Emmerich, and about south of Doetinchem. It received city rights in 1379. 's-Heerenberg is the loca ...

with a full appointment. In 1918 he was appointed as professor in history of religion at the

University of Groningen The University of Groningen (abbreviated as UG; nl, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, abbreviated as RUG) is a public research university of more than 30,000 students in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands. Founded in 1614, the university is th ...

. He applied the concept of phenomenology to religion. He is best known for his work ''Religion in Essence and Manifestation: A Study in Phenomenology'', an application of philosophical phenomenology to religion. It was first published in 1933 under the German title ''Phänomenologie der Religion'' and translated into English in 1938. From 1945–1946 van der Leeuw was Minister of Education of the Netherlands for the Labour Party (appointed immediately after the end of the war). Before the war he had been a member of the conservative

Christian Historical Union The Christian Historical Union ( nl, Christelijk-Historische Unie, CHU) was a Protestant Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CHU is one of the predecessors of the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), into which it merged i ...

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1890 births 1950 deaths Ministers of Education of the Netherlands Members of the House of Representatives (Netherlands) Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians 20th-century Dutch philosophers Politicians from The Hague Philosophers of religion Phenomenologists Academic staff of the University of Groningen {{reli-philo-bio-stub