William Brede Kristensen

William Brede Kristensen (21 June 1867 in Kristiansand – 25 September 1953 in Leiden) was a Norwegian historian of religion.

Kristensen completed secondary school in 1884. For a short while he studied theology, but from the fall of 1887 he concentrated on history of religion, first in Kristiania, later (1890–92) at Leiden University under Professor Cornelis Petrus Tiele and 1892–93 in Paris under Gaston Maspero.

In 1896 he received his Doctor Philosophiae from the University of Kristiania on a thesis titled The Egyptians' Conceptions of Life after Death in Relation to the Gods Ra and Osiris (Ægypternes Forestillinger om Liv efter Døden i Forbindelse med Guderne Ra og Osiris).

Kristensen was granted a scholarship, combined with the duty of giving lectures at University of Kristiania in 1898. In 1901 he became the successor of Professor Tiele in history of religion and Phenomenology of religion at Leiden University, a professorship he held until his retirement in 1937.
Kristensen can be seen as the anchorman of Dutch Phenomenology of religion. Kristensen argues that phenomenology seeks the “meaning” of religious phenomena. Kristensen clarifies this supposition by defining the meaning that his phenomenology is seeking as “the meaning that the religious phenomena have for the believers themselves”.

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