PThU News
- Ascension Weekend in a Benedictine MonasteryDuring the Ascension weekend, eight students and three lecturers stayed at the Benedictine monastery in Chevetogne, Belgium. The encounter with Père Philippe, who has been a monk for 66 years, made a deep impression. Student Pieter Camfferman reports.
- Moral Compass Project to become Moral Compass CentreThe Moral Compass Project began in 2018 with six subprojects, all of which have now been completed. Stichting Paradosis is now funding new projects which, from 1 September 2026 onwards, will come together in the new Moral Compass Centre.
- Albert Jan Heitink appointed as member of the PThU Supervisory BoardThe General Synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) has approved the appointment of Drs Albert Jan Heitink RA as a member of the Supervisory Board of the Protestant Theological University. “The PThU has ancient credentials for an exceptionally relevant field of study.”
- Hebrew and Old Testament lecturers visit MarburgFrom Friday 1 May to Sunday 3 May, Lieve Teugels, Paul Sanders, and Michaël van der Meer participated in the annual conference of the international — though predominantly German-speaking — association of Hebrew lecturers.
- Archbishop of South Africa Thabo Makgoba visits the Netherlands in the context of ecotheologyThe archbishop attended an ecumenical green service in Amsterdam on Sunday 19 April, with a contribution from Marileen Steyn, postdoctoral researcher at the PThU and Soil project manager.
- Promotion Sophia HöffSophia Höff defended her dissertation on 28 April Finding Meaning in the Family Between Givenness and Transcendence: Voices from Theology, Philosophy, and Literature.
- Prof. Dr. Matthijs de Jong, new professor of Old Testament StudiesThe Protestant Theological University has appointed Prof. Dr. Matthijs de Jong as Professor of Old Testament Studies. On April 17, the synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands approved the appointment. This makes the Executive Board’s appointment official. De Jong will assume his new role on September 1.
- Stewardship as a buoy for the landJan van der Stoep, team member of the Soil project and endowed professor of Christian philosophy at WUR, described the concept of stewardship as a buoy that helped him in the 1980s to establish a better connection with the land. Can stewardship still, in 2026, serve as a buoy for the land? A diverse group of participants reflected on this question during a working conference on the subject on 25 February.
- History of Black Christianity in the Netherlands proves to be centuries oldBlack Christians in the Netherlands are not a modern migrant phenomenon, but were already part of the church in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This is shown by the unexpected historical discovery of more than one hundred baptism records of Black Christians from that period. To investigate this discovery further, the Church and Slavery project has been awarded an additional grant by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).
- Farewell Prof Heleen Zorgdrager: From Paramaribo to PokrovskWhat is the state of gender and sexuality in interaction with structural violence and political, ideological, and theological power? How do I work with the term gender, and what do I mean by political theology? These questions lay at the foundation of the farewell address delivered yesterday by Prof. Dr. Heleen Zorgdrager during the dies natalis of the PThU. She presented a proposal for a liberating political theology with explicit attention to gender.
- White space and the hidden meaning of biblical texts Much like in poetry, the meaning of biblical texts depends on the form in which words are arranged. How a text was originally structured, grouped into units using paragraphs and indents, decides how it should be interpreted. In biblical texts, those “empty spaces” point to a very ancient understanding of the text that bible translators should take into account. Or so Jürgen Gruhler will be arguing when he defends his dissertation on the Book of Daniel this afternoon.
- A First for the PThU: an Artist in ResidenceBiologist, writer and Libris Prize winner Mariken Heitman will be regularly present at the Jansdam from January through March. During her artist residency she will, together with students and staff, explore the relationship between theology and soil—work that is intended to grow into the “Liturgy of the Garden.”
- Where God meets the Earth: rethinking Christianity’s nature problem When Indian-born theologian Charles Christian began to read neo-Hindu critique of Christianity's relationship with nature, little did he know that it would become his PhD project. It set him on a search for a model of the God–world relationship that could genuinely help his people to engage with modern science. That search led him deep into the faith’s trinitarian roots—insights he now believes offer a very different story, one capable of reshaping contemporary debates about science, ecology and justice.
- Speaking about church and slavery at the ‘scene of the crime’The conversation about church and slavery cannot and should not take place only in the Netherlands. That was the premise of the conference on church and slavery in the Netherlands, the Dutch Caribbean and Suriname, held in Curaçao from 10 to 14 November. Plans for the conference began on a modest scale, but interest quickly proved overwhelming. In the end, 44 lectures and presentations were delivered, and more than one hundred participants attended.
- PThU Professor Arnold Huijgen Named New Theologian of the NetherlandsArnold Huijgen, Professor of Dogmatics at the PThU, was named Theologian of the Netherlands 2025–2026 during the Night of Theology on 13 November. For a full year he will represent theology within Dutch society and give it a public face. Prof. Dr Martha Frederiks, Rector of the PThU, responds with delight: “As PThU we are pleased and proud that a PThU professor receives this honour. He truly deserves it. With great dedication and conviction he shows how relevant theology can be for society, and he does not shy away from difficult themes.”
- Bridging Gaps programme now open for applicationsBridging Gaps 2026 is now accepting applications! This three-month international exchange programme in Amsterdam is an opportunity to connect with theology students from around the world, to learn from and with each other. Participants will receive a scholarship that covers all necessary costs. Students from Asia, Africa, Latin America, Middle-East, or Eastern Europe are invited to apply.
- Professor Mirella Klomp: “God loves matter”On Friday 31 October, Prof Dr Mirella Klomp delivered her inaugural lecture, formally accepting the chair of Practical Theology: Worship and Formation. Over the past year, in her role as Theologian of the Netherlands, she has travelled across the country speaking with people in search of the collective story about land. Building on these conversations, she explored how we relate to “the material”: what do we actually believe about the material reality—in the church and in society at large? And what does this mean for the task of practical theology in teaching and research?
- International study week on the Kingdom of God in UtrechtFrom 4 to 11 October, the Protestant Theological University welcomed students and lecturers from the Netherlands and abroad for an intensive study week on the theme “The Kingdom of God.” The event was part of the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), a collaboration between four theological universities: the Protestant Theological Institute in Cluj-Napoca, the Reformed Theological University in Debrecen, and the PThU.
- Ukrainian doctoral students reflect on Erasmus+ exchangeThis summer, three doctoral students in Theology from the Ukrainian Catholic University (UCU) – Kateryna Biletska, Nataliya Popovych, and Lidiya Moskal – spent time at the Protestant Theological University (PThU) in Utrecht, the Netherlands, as part of an Erasmus+ academic exchange. Their experience became a journey of academic enrichment, spiritual deepening, and human connection.
- Louise Nelstrop: Christian Mysticism Cannot Be Separated from the BibleChristian mysticism cannot be separated from the Bible. This was the central argument of Prof Dr Louise Nelstrop in her inaugural lecture on the occasion of her acceptance of the Chair of Church History. “The Bible had a crucial influence on the thought of mystics. Their exegesis challenges us to rethink our understanding of essential Christian ideas, such as what it means to love God.”
