PThU News
- PThU performs well in the National Student Survey 2026Almost three-quarters of students in higher professional education and research universities are satisfied with the programme they are enrolled in. This is evident from the results of the National Student Survey (NSE) 2026, completed by more than 248,000 students. Student satisfaction therefore remains high. How do our students compare?
- Learning across contexts: Bosco Bangura visits St Paul’s University in KenyaExploring themes of salvation in African Pentecostalism and African Theology, Dr Bosco Bangura visited St Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, from 13–20 May 2026 as part of the Erasmus+ KA171 Cooperation Agreement with the PThU.
- 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.
