Biographical note



Meins G.S. Coetsier (1977) was born in the Netherlands and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy in 2004 and subsequently with a Master’s Degree in 2006 from The Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy, a Recognised College of the National University of Ireland. He was invited by Professor Klaas A.D. Smelik to assist and develop the international Etty Hillesum Research Centre, EHOC, at Ghent University, Belgium.

 

In 2008 Coetsier was awarded the Doctorate in Philosophy at Ghent University by the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, on the basis of a study on "Eric Voegelin’s Philosophy of Luminous Participation in the Transcendent Ground of Being." As a result his promoter, Professor Ronald Commers of UGent inspired him to develop the Centre of Eric Voegelin Studies at Ghent University in order to promote Voegelin’s work in Europe. The Centre for Eric Voegelin Studies at the UGent has collaborated with the Eric Voegelin Society worldwide, the Eric Voegelin Archive  (Munich, Germany), VoegelinView, and the Eric Voegelin Institute (Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA).

 

In 2011, Coetsier completed his four-year FWO research project (2007-2011) which provides a framework for understanding Etty Hillesum's spiritual search and her Diaries and Letters 1941-1943 in the light of Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In 2012, Coetsier was awarded the degree Doctor of Comparative Science of Cultures at Ghent University for this study. Together with Klaas A.D. Smelik he edited the first complete bilingual edition of Etty Hillesum's writings: Etty Hillesum: The Complete Works 1941-1943, Bilingual, Annotated and Unabridged - Publication in two Volumes (2014). From 2011 till 2015, he was affiliated scholar at the Institute of Hermeneutics and Philosophy of Religion, and at the Niederlandistik (Deutsches Seminar), Zurich University. Next to his academic research, he was active as a philosophical guide. In 2015, he moved to Hessen, Germany.

 

Dr. mult. Coetsier is a part-time researcher in philosophy and theology and an ordained deacon in the diocese of Fulda. From 2016 to 2023 he was a prison chaplain and a visiting scholar at the Loyola Institute - Trinity College Dublin - in Ireland. In 2021, he successfully defended his doctorate in theology at the Loyola Institute of TCD's School of Religion (Theology and Ecumenics). In 2023 he was appointed Deanery Coordinator for Pastoral Care in Nursing Homes and for the Practical Development of Pastoral Care in Nursing Homes in the Diocese of Fulda.

 

As author and editor of various academic books, he has published several chapters, articles and conference proceedings in theology, philosophy and cultural studies.