theologian university professor
January N. Bremmer was born during the World World War II in 1944 in Groningen, Netherlands. His father Rolf Hendrik Bremmer was a Calvinist minister and a church historian, and his mother Lucy Lindeboom also came from a family of Calvinist ministers.
Bremmer studied Classics and Spanish at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (1962-1970) and the University of Bristol (1969-1970).
He served as a professor of Religious Studies and Theology at the University of Groningen. His maternal great-grandfather Lucas Lindeboom (1845-1933) was a professor at the Kampen Theological College. During 1970-1972, he he did his military service with the Dutch Military Intelligence.
They have two daughters: Melissa and Rebecca.
During 1972-1974, Bremmer taught Classics at Christelijk Streeklyceum (Christian Regional Lyceum) in Ede, Netherlands. Subsequently he taught ancient history at the University of Utrecht, as an Assistant Professor (1974-1978) and as an Associate Professor (1978-1990).
In 1979, he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy from the Vrije Universiteit with a dissertation on The Early Greek Conception of the Soul (published by Princeton University Press in 1983). In 1990, Bremmer joined the University of Groningen as the Chair of Religious Studies, in Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies.
He served as the dean of the Faculty during 1996-2005.
He was the inaugural Getty Villa Professor at Malibu during 2006-2007. He served as a visiting professor at several other places, including the University of Edinburgh (2007). He retired from teaching in December 2009.
