Farewell Pieter Vos as director
I have been the director of IRTI since 2015 and a member of its Management Team since 2012. The time has come to hand over this role and dedicate myself to other tasks. I look back on a decade of wonderful encounters with so many friends, colleagues, and students from around the world. It was a pleasure to meet you at the conferences in Sarospatak (2013), New Brunswick (2015), Hong Kong (2017), Amsterdam (2019), online (2022), and Yogyakarta (2024), as well as three IRTI summer courses in Amsterdam (2016, 2018, and 2023).
I cherish memories of wonderful conversations and discussions, such as on the challenges of public theology in Hong Kong, polarization and the role of the church in Amsterdam, and peace ethics and just war in Yogyakarta. I am grateful to all of you for your cooperation in organizing these meetings, for the lectures, presentations, lively discussions and enjoyable encounters. IRTI is a unique community where we not just meet as theologians rooted in the Reformed tradition, but also share our common faith across borders.
After ten years I feel it is good that someone else takes over. This will give me a bit more time and space to devote myself to tasks related to my chair in Ethics and Military Chaplaincy, especially the increasingly relevant and urgent questions in the field of the ethics of peace and war. I am very delighted that Maarten Wisse has agreed to take over my role and will serve IRTI as its fourth director as we enter its fourth decade. Many of you will know him as an inspiring theologian. He attended several IRTI conferences and organized the 2011 IRTI conference in Potchefstroom. I trust that he, along with Henk van den Belt, Joost Hengstmengel, and Albert Nijboer, will lead IRTI into its next decade.
Of course, my dedication to IRTI doesn’t end here. I hope to attend the next conference and meet many of you again. Blessings to you all!
Pieter Vos
