Johannes (Jan) Maria van der Lans (10 July 1933 – 6 July 2002) was a Dutch professor in the psychology of religion at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (now called Radboud University Nijmegen).
In 1978 he received his doctorate for his dissertation on Religious experience and meditation (Dutch: Religieuze ervaring en meditatie).
Van der Lans was involved in the International Association for the Psychology of Religion (German: Internationale Gesellschaft für Religionspsychologie) and as of 1998 part of its executive committee.
According to one of his colleagues, his work was not without theological preferences and bias, but he presented himself as an empirically oriented psychologist.
[3] From 1997 to his death, he was chair of the Netherlands-based Catholic Study Center for Mental Health (Dutch Katholiek Studiecentrum voor Geestelijke Volksgezondheid, usually abbreviated as KSGV, an organization that undertakes its activities from a Christian inspiration)[4] and wrote several books commissioned by them.