Religionshistoriker; senior lecturer, interdisciplinary, School of Modern Lang. and European Hist., Univ. of East Anglia (1986); now an independent researcher in Germany first in Kiel, now near Munich; lives in Ilmmünster, Germany; since 2007 honorary professor of Religionsgeschichte der Antike and since 2008 Corresponding member of the Max Weber Centre for Cultural and Social Studies at University of Erfurt