PThU welcomes new rector
With the words Salve Rectrix Magnifica, iterumque salve! Prof Dr Martha Frederiks was formally invested with the chain of office as the new rector of the Protestant Theological University today. The ceremony took place during the Opening of the Academic Year. “The diversity of the Christian tradition is, for me personally, one of my greatest sources of inspiration,” said the new rector.
Appreciation for diversity
“Those who may hope or expect that I will use the remainder of this address to outline some sort of agenda for how I intend to shape the rectorship in the years ahead, I must disappoint,” Prof Frederiks began. Instead, she spoke words of appreciation: to colleagues and former colleagues, and for the diversity of research projects and church traditions within PThU.
“It always moves me to read how that same story, that same book, through the centuries and across cultures, has been able to inspire and transform so many different people, so many different lives, in so many different times and contexts,” the new rector said. “The Christian tradition is diverse and has always been so. And that is a good thing, because people differ, and the contexts in which they live differ; diversity is a sign of the vitality and the power of the tradition.”
Through the centuries
“If for more than twenty centuries that same story has inspired and moved people all over the world, there is no reason to assume that this could no longer be the case in the Netherlands. And that gives me hope, space, and a certain holy unconcern, because we may know ourselves to be part of that great community of people, that church of all times and places, a movement through the centuries, carried and led by the Spirit.”
Download the address
The full text of Martha Frederiks’ address is now available for download (Dutch only).
