Dr Mari van Emmerik is a Research Associate at the Faculty of Divinity, the University of Cambridge, where she co-leads the John Templeton Foundation-funded project "Awe-some Spirituality: A Theological and Psychological Exploration of Awe Underlying Spiritual Yearning of the Nonreligious". This work examines how the universal human experience of awe bridges secular and religious spirituality, and what this reveals about the nature of spiritual longing. Mari completed her doctorate at the University of Oxford in 2022 under the supervision of Professor Alister McGrath. Her interdisciplinary academic background includes postgraduate degrees in Cognitive Science, Linguistics, and Science and Religion, which she earned as a Fulbright Scholar in the United States and as a Clarendon Scholar at Oxford. She taught undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Theology and Science at Cambridge for two years between 2022 and 2024, and actively contributes to public discourse on the intersection of religion and science.
