Torkel Brekke

Torkel Brekke (born 1970) is a Norwegian historian of religion, specializing in the intersection of religion and politics. He is a professor at the MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society in Oslo and affiliated with the University of Oslo's Center for Research on Extremism. He was formerly a professor at the University of Oslo and deputy director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO).

Background and career Brekke earned his doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1999. He has published extensively on the culture, politics and religion of South Asia. His research includes the ethics of war in world religions and the phenomenon of religious fundamentalism. Brekke associates the rise of fundamentalism with developments after 1850, interpreting it as a reaction against modernism and nationalism.

In 2005, Brekke received the Faculty of Humanities' award for the most promising researcher under the age of 40 at the University of Oslo. He was a professor of the history of religions and South Asian area studies at the University of Oslo. From 2016 to 2020, Brekke was a Senior Research Fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), where he also served as Deputy Director. Between 2019 and 2023, he was professor of cultural and religious diversity at Oslo Metropolitan University. In 2023 he became a professor at MF.