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?
Photo: © Sandra Haverman
Inaugural lecture
In her address, Stof tot nadenken. Geloof in de materiële werkelijkheid en de taak van de praktische theologie (“Food for thought: Faith in the material reality and the task of practical theology”), Klomp revealed how the spiritual—manifested in ideologies, narratives and (faith) convictions—has increasingly come to dominate the material, often with damaging effects on matter itself.
God loves raw material
Using two biblical texts, Klomp illustrated that the stories of God becoming human and of humanity being made from earth also mean that the Christian God can be found in matter. In her lecture, she expressed this not only in words but also through poetry and music: the composition Grondstof (“Raw Material”), commissioned by her in her capacity as Theologian of the Netherlands and performed during the lecture, portrayed God as a temporary dwelling, as an alginate bandage, as a mine supervisor, and as a slice of beetroot. “We cannot draw the Word of God deep enough into matter,” she stated, “so matter deserves more good attention from a Christian perspective.”
A fitting location
The lecture took place in Noordertuin, a glass greenhouse complex in Utrecht. The setting playfully referred to paradise—the Garden of Eden, where the first humans, Adam and Eve, lived after being formed from the soil. Noordertuin thus provided a striking backdrop for this musical and theological exploration.
