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Overcoming slavery and racism in church and theology

In recent years, debates about racism and the slavery past have become very visible in Dutch society: discussions about apologies, Black Pete and the Black Lives Matter movement are just a few examples. Churches are trying to contribute to these topics and have entered a process of critical self-reflection: how does the slavery past connect to today's racism in church and society? What ways of reading the Bible have helped to justify slavery and racism? And who stood up to the reality of slavery and racism in church and theology and offered other approaches? These questions are the focus of this seminar.

Drawing on biblical, historical, systematic-theological and practical-theological literature, we will discuss practices and theological justifications of slavery and racism, as well as traditions of resistance and renewal.

  • Course content

    The seminar consists of three parts: a biblical, historical and systematic-theological part.

    We will examine slavery metaphors in biblical theology, delve into ideas about slavery in early modern Protestantism, such as the thoughts of Jacobus E.J. Capitein, a formally enslaved black minister in the Netherlands in the eighteenth century. For the nineteenth century, we focus on Abolitionism, the effort to overcome slavery, with special attention to Marten Douwes Teenstra in South Africa, Indonesia, Suriname and the Antilles.

    Finally, we will meet Black Christ as a response to racism in theology in the United States, South Africa and Europe today.

  • Size

    The seminar is 7.5 ECTS.

  • Period

    November 2025 to January 2026

  • For who?

    Do you want to engage in an informed conversation about the role of the church in the slavery past and racism then and now? Then this is the seminar for you.

  • Literature

    • Jennifer A. Glancy, Slavery in Early Christianity, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2006, 1-70; 102-129, 157-168; 172-176. 112 pp.
    • Annette Merz, ‘Believers as “Slaves of Christ” and “Freedpersons of the Lord”: Slavery and Freedom as Ambiguous Soteriological Metaphors in 1 Cor 7:22 and Col 3:22-4:1‘, NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion, 72(2), 2018, 95-110. 15p.
    • Annette Merz, ‘The Fictitious Self-Exposition of Paul: HowMight Intertextual Theory Suggest a Reformulation of theHermeneutics of Pseudepigraphy?’, in: T. L. Brodie, D.R. MacDonald and S. E. Porter (eds.), The Intertextuality ofthe Epistles. Explorations of Theory and Practice (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press 2006), 113-132. 19 p.
    • Mende Nazer, with Bernadette J. Brooten, Epiglogue, in: B. Brooten (ed.), Beyond Slavery. Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies, Palgrave MacMillan, NewYork, 2010, 309-318. 9 pp.
    • David P. Wright, “She Shall Not Go Free as Male Slaves Do”: Developing Views About Slavery and Gender in the Laws of the Hebrew Bible, in: B. Brooten (ed.), Beyond Slavery. Overcoming Its Religious and Sexual Legacies, Palgrave MacMillan, New York, 2010, 125-142. 17 pp. 
    • Thinking about slavery in Early Modern Protestantism.
    • D.N.A. Kpobi, Mission in chains. The life, theology andministry of the ex-slave Jacobus E.J. Capitein 1717-1747. With a translation of his major publications (Zoetermeer: Boekencentrum 1993). Selected chapters: 100 pp. 
    • The legacy of slavery in contemporary theology: the Black Christ
    • Kelly Brown Douglas (2019), The Black Christ, OrbisBooks: Maryknoll New York (1994). 170 pp.
    • Erica Meijers (2014), ‘The End of the Colonial Mindset: Apartheid as Challenge for the Protestant Churches in theNetherlands', in: Annegreth Schilling und Katarina Kunter (red.), Globalisierung der Kirchen. Der Ökumenische Ratder Kirchen und die Entdeckung der Dritten Welt in den 1960er und 1970er Jahren, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &Ruprecht, p. 313-333.
    • The New Gospel, Film by Milo Rau.
    • Gert van Klinken, From Natural Theology to Abolitionism. Marten Douwes Teenstra and Slavery, 1795-1865. In manuscript (to appear 2026), 300 pp.

    Recommended literature

    • Additional literature to be used for the papers is available in the library.
    • Mary E. Sommer, The Slaves from the Churches. A History (Oxford, 2020), 43 pp.
    • Anthony Reddie, Is God colour-blind? Insights from BlackTheology for Christian Ministry (SPCK, 2009) 10 pp.

  • Lecturers

  • Assessment

    You conclude the seminar with a literature review and a paper on a topic of your choice, related to the seminar.

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