He is specializing in early modern and modern church- and art history. His research is focusing on the history and historiography of confessions and on European history of ideas and erudition. So he has been contributing to the investigation of Scandinavian emblematics and hymnology. For the time being and not least due to the fifth centenary of the reformation Carsten Bach-Nielsen is studying the uses and politics of memory in relation to the protestant main confessions.