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- The Index of Saved Academic Reputations
Authors: Dries Bosschaert
Abstract: AbstractIn 1953 the book L’encyclique ‘Humani Generis’ et les problèmes scientifiques by the Leuven biologist Camille Muller was placed on the Index of Prohibited Books. In L’Osservatore Romano the action was described as setting an example for Catholic scientists who were not being faithful to the magisterium. Without much ado, Muller submitted to the decision, and the Catholic University of Leuven withdrew its hands from the affair. Historical research, however, shows that the story is not so straightforward. Although the university as a whole and the theological faculty in particular used this decision to affirm its Catholic orthodoxy, it turns out that the conviction provided an opportunity for the academic council to settle a broader dispute with Muller. In fact, Muller had just gone through a procedure with the rectorate and the Belgian bishops for disciplinary, moral, and doctrinal malpractice; a compromise solution had been reached with the purpose of saving everyone’s reputation. The present contribution studies, ma§ inly on the basis of material contained in the archives of rector magnificus Honoré van Waeyenbergh, Muller’s condemnation via the Index as a convenient way for the university to find a solution to a wider problem, while keeping its own Catholic reputation intact.
PubDate: 2022-12-31T00:00:00Z
- ‘Free at last!’
Authors: Patrick Pasture
Abstract: Abstract‘Free at last!’ The words come from Reverend Martin Luther King’s famous speech ‘I have a dream’ from August 1963.2 The speech and those words evocate all what the sixties stand for – but also some of the dilemmas and paradoxes of the historiography of the period. The religious dimension in the speech is evident. However, there is virtually no room for religion in the general (political, social and cultural) historiography of the 1960s,3 and insofar it does speak specifically about religion, it usually does so in terms of crisis, decline, and secularization – the ‘death of God’ –, while Church and religious history rather explore the variety of ecclesiastical reactions and particularly forms of religious renewal (sometimes, as in many histories of Vatican II, rather disconnected from society at large).4 Freedom is mainly associated with sexual liberation, not exactly what King intended. It is therefore striking that almost exclusively ‘white’ men and women dominate the debate. I’m one of those too, but try to take a slightly different, ‘decentralized’ perspective to reflect upon the uses of ‘freedom’ with regard to religion in the sixties, taking in consideration the complexities of the changing context of the time. King’s freedom incidentally did not focus on religious freedom either, which dominates the debate on freedom and religion today, especially in the US.
PubDate: 2022-12-31T00:00:00Z
- Translating the Crown Jewel
Authors: Walter E.A. van Beek; Wilfried Decoo
Abstract: AbstractThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as LDS or Mormon Church, translates its originally English scriptures worldwide, also in Dutch for its 10,000 members in the Low Lands. The focus in this article is on the Book of Mormon, written in an English biblical style of the 1600s, first translated in Dutch in 1890 and followed by several revisions and a retranslation. This article sketches how LDS translation is conducted in a tight framework that is both religiously and institutionally defined. It explores how the developments that characterize new Dutch Bible translations also play out in the LDS Dutch context as the Church’s insistence on formal-equivalent translation rubs against modernizing pressures. Exemplary for these transitions in Dutch Bible versions is the choice of the pronoun of address: from gij which the Statenvertaling Bible (1637) deeply embedded, to the modern but still solemn u and next to the informal jij, je, jullie. The Dutch retranslation of the Book of Mormon struggled with these and similar issues, in particular because the wording and style should reflect, for coherence, the official LDS choice for an existing Dutch Bible. When a Bible choice changes, it affects the next revision of Het Boek van Mormon. Finally, translation is also and perhaps foremost the story of human actors — how each of them has room to maneuver in spite of the tight framework. As a result, diversity thrives where unity was intended.
PubDate: 2022-12-31T00:00:00Z
- The Dutch Vatican Mission
Authors: Joep van Gennip
Abstract: AbstractThe contribution of the Dutch Roman Catholic Church in the resettlement policy of collaborators after the Second World War has generally been acknowledge, although the Catholic charity organisations which took part in this process, especially the so-called Dutch Vatican Mission (Nederlandse Vaticaan Missie, NVM) and her successor the Dutch Charity Mission (Nederlandse Caritas Missie, NCM) has hardly been subject to academic investigation. In this article the influence of both short-lived organisations (1945-1950) in the reconciliation-process of convicted and non-convicted collaborators is described, which makes it clear that the NVM and the NCM played a role in the spiritual, material and financial support of former political offenders who had to return into society. The Missions also appealed on their behalf to the government and the Dutch society to establish a more merciful and lenient policy. Finally, the NCM was abolished ingloriously due to internal Catholic competition, financial and administrative mismanagement, and an unclear profile.
PubDate: 2022-12-31T00:00:00Z
- Bezinning op een kantelpunt in de geschiedenis van de Katholieke
Universiteit.
Authors: Jan Brabers
Abstract: AbstractBoth the Catholic University in Nijmegen and the Calvinist Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam underwent a transformation in the 1960s. In the course of the 1960s it became clear that the original objectives with which the Catholic University was founded, in 1923, were no longer valid. Changing times called for a new positioning. The ‘Schillebeeckx Committee’ devoted itself, from 1966 onwards, to rethinking ‘character and function’ of the Catholic University. The Committee was composed of six leading professors and six students. The intention was not to formulate new principles but to take into consideration a plurality of thoughts, ideas, and opinions about the identity of the university. The work of the Committee took much more time than planned. When the Committee finished its activities in 1971, nothing was the same as in 1966, when it had started. The Committee arrived at the conclusion that the process of de-confessionalisation was unstoppable, which was nothing to be sorry about. The contemporary student population, for example, was practically indifferent towards the Catholic identity of the university. Another conclusion was that the university should offer a permanent platform for a dialogue, or a confrontation, between faith and science. The primary goal of the university would be the same as before: the practice of universal science combined with a special concern for the meaning of science for humanity. In hindsight, the profound discussions within the ‘Schillebeeckx Committee’ would prove to be the first of a seemingly endless debate on the identity of the university.
PubDate: 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Meer dan een ornament
Authors: Ab Flipse
Abstract: AbstractBoth the Calvinist Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam and the Catholic University in Nijmegen underwent a transformation in the 1960s. Already around 1960 it was clear to both institutions that the changing times called for a new positioning. Various committees and study days were devoted to this issue. At the VU, it was mainly the ‘Kruyswijk Committee’ that, from 1965 onwards, devoted itself to reformulating the article of the statutory principles in which the identity of the university was laid down. There was no agreement in the committee as to how broadly or narrowly this identity should be formulated, and whether the original ideal of a ‘Christian science’ was still worth pursuing. Nevertheless, a formulation was sought in which various factions could recognize themselves. The formulation, so they emphasized, had to be more than an ‘ornament’: it had to give the university new impetus and appeal. Subsequently, two editorial committees, which produced the final formulation, gave the article an ecumenical and ‘horizontal’ character. Despite criticism by some of the more conservative supporters of the university, a new identity was formulated. However, developments in the student world and the new democratic university administration, made it difficult to put it into practice in the 1970s.
PubDate: 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Heritage Care and Valorization in a Changing Religious Landscape
Authors: Joris Colla; Aaldert Prins, Karim Ettourki Julie Aerts
Abstract: AbstractThe changing religious landscape of Flanders/Belgium presents a challenge for organizations seeking to care for and valorize religious heritage. To broaden their scope and respond to the far-reaching changes in society, they need to develop broad expertise and extensive networks across religious and cultural boundaries. In 2019–2020, KADOC-KU Leuven and PARCUM conducted the project ‘Hemelsbreed. Diverse Religious Heritage in Flanders’ to focus on the movable, immovable, and intangible heritage and heritage-related needs of Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, Islamic, Jewish, and Protestant faith communities. ‘Hemelsbreed’ was an important first step in mapping out the diversity of religious heritage in Flanders. In this article, we present the project’s research methodology and offer an overview of its principal results. We conclude with suggestions for future actions in the field of religious heritage care and valorization, actions which can also stimulate innovative research on the evolving religious landscape.
PubDate: 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z
- De militair tot zegen
Authors: Koos-jan de Jager
Abstract: AbstractThis article studies the place of religion in the military welfare services of the Dutch Armed Forces during the Indonesian war of independence (1945-1950). During this war, the Dutch government deployed 200,000 soldiers in Indonesia. In the Netherlands debates arose on the immoral (sexual) behavior and religious decline of these soldiers. Military clubhouses were presented as a weapon in the fight against immorality. The Dutch army preferred ‘neutral’ clubhouses without a specific Protestant or Catholic identity but inclusive to everyone. However, Dutch churches and religious organizations successfully argued for clubhouses and welfare work based on a specific confessional tradition. Notwithstanding the discussions, the military clubhouses were of support for Dutch soldiers in Indonesia, whether it be explicit Christian or neutral institutions.
PubDate: 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Gezocht: katholiek met hart voor natuurschoon
Authors: Kristian Mennen
Abstract: AbstractThe nature conservation movement and Catholicism were conspicuously detached in the Netherlands in the first half of the twentieth century. Nature conservation was apparently not an area of interest for the emerging Catholic ‘pillar’. Most conservationist groups and associations and their leaders were affiliated to the ‘neutral’ or ‘liberal’ pillar. The first half of this article provides an overview of the individual Catholic activists, conservationists, and hobby naturalists affiliated to the nature conservation movement in this early period.After 1945, however, Catholic under-representation became an issue for the Dutch nature conservation movement. Associations such as Natuurmonumenten were influenced by new perspectives on pillarisation and democratic participation, and met local opposition to their work in predominantly Catholic regions in the Netherlands. Once the conservationists ‘discovered’ that they did not have enough Catholic members and had no influential contacts in the Catholic pillar, they tried to amend this by approaching their friends in the Catholic elite.The Catholic political party usually opposed the goals of nature conservation in the 1950s, while left-wing politicians affiliated to the nature conservation movement defended them. The perception of an antagonistic relationship between nature conservation and Catholicism has persisted in the Netherlands since. It seems that this impression is actually based on that specific historical constellation in the Netherlands, and much less so on any fundamental incompatibility of nature conservation and Catholicism.
PubDate: 2022-12-01T00:00:00Z
- Heritage and Religious Change in Contemporary Europe: Interactions Along
Three Axes
Authors: Todd H. Weir
Abstract: AbstractThis article examines the relationship between heritage and three dimensions of religious change that have characterized Europe since the 1960s, namely secularization, pluralization, and spiritualization. Following an analysis of the role of religious heritage in both public discourse and academia, the essay turns to recent heritage initiatives, and explores how churches, secular organizations and government agencies have responded to the shifting religious landscape in their heritage work. The article shows that while secularization, understood here as declining participation in traditional religious congregations, has forced churches and synagogues to change hands and find new uses, it has also made possible new types of secular-religious cooperation in heritage that moves in a postsecular direction. The diversification of European society, which features the growth of new religious communities, has prompted some to mobilize tropes of “Christian” or “Judeo-Christian-Humanist” heritage to exclude religious minorities. At the same time, growing diversity has also led to calls to pluralize Europe’s religious heritage. Grassroots and top-down efforts to recover the presence of minorities in Europe in past decades have flourished. Finally, the article explores spiritualization as a religious activity that highlights creativity in the ongoing meaning making that constitutes heritage work today.
PubDate: 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
- What Gender Does to Religious Institutions
Authors: Sarah Barthélemy
Abstract: AbstractRecently, significant contributions to the study of religion and gender have been made, as evidenced by Belgian and Dutch literature, amongst others. Joan W. Scott has pointed out that, in these studies, gender is expressed and analyzed as a multi-layered concept – it can represent power, social institutions, or organization. It can express ideas of subjective identity and what is normative. This article explores religious female congregations of the Catholic Church in the first half of the nineteenth century and focuses on power relationships. It unpacks the use of gender in religious history and demonstrates that a gendered history of Catholic institutions is possible even when men define the institutional framework and exclude the women who are, in fact, already a part of it.
PubDate: 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
- Van actieve religieuzen naar activistische religieuzen en weer terug
Authors: Charles M.A. Caspers
Abstract: AbstractIn the spirit of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), the Daughters of Mary and Joseph, a sister congregation founded in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in 1820, adapted themselves in the sixties and seventies of the twentieth century to the changed and changing society. The abandonment of rigid authority structures and the move to permanent education brought a sense of liberation to many of them. It activated them to work for the betterment of the poor and the oppressed, at home and in the mission. Inevitably, the rapid social changes in many sisters also led to alienation and distancing from their spiritual heritage and thus also from the raison d’être of the Congregation. Thanks to fundamental studies that appeared in the eighties and nineties in the field of the spirituality of religious life, they reaffirmed their heritage and thus their individuality as a religious community. Within this spiritual climate, mutual understanding grew between the sisters in the Netherlands and their fellow sisters in Indonesia.
PubDate: 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
- ‘Ik was in de gevangenis en gij hebt Mij bezocht’
Authors: Joep van Gennip
Abstract: AbstractIn the years after the Second World War, the Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands played a significant role in providing spiritual and social care to political prisoners and their families, both within and outside residential and internment camps. Although this is mentioned in historical studies, systematic research is still lacking. This article bridges this gap and introduces this theme as a research subject. In the immediate aftermath of the war, the Dutch government tasked Catholic chaplains and their Protestant colleagues to do pastoral and social work in detention and internment camps. This chaplaincy, centralised by the Dutch Catholic Church, was mainly dominated by their regular clergy. Ecumenical cooperation was sought when alleged government abuses in the camps were being investigated, or during campaigns to educate the Dutch population in the message of clemency and forgiveness for small political offenses. There were also Catholic initiatives to help ex-political prisoners re-integrate into society. These initiatives often varied by diocese. Attempts to set up a centralized organisation for this work, in the form of the Dutch Vatican Mission, and later through Catholic charities, failed due to mismanagement. Although at first reluctant to cooperate with the semi-public ‘Association for the Supervision of Political Delinquents’, the Church soon became a partner and helped re-integrate Catholic political delinquents. Several Catholic institutions were involved, and high ranking political (KVP) and religious networks played an important role in shaping a ‘mutual’ policy. Motives for the clergy to help (ex-)political delinquents were numerous. Some had notions of mercy, forgiveness and Christian charity, and some saw this as a project of moral re-education and ‘opportunistic conversions. Finally, there were those clergy who feared the prisoners would divorce their partners, while other tried to prevent the growing communist influence on the former political prisoners.
PubDate: 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
- Gefnuikte heilsverwachting
Authors: H. Nico Plomp
Abstract: AbstractThe movement of Christenen voor het Socialisme (CvS, Christians for Socialism) existed in the Netherlands from 1974 to 1993. It was the radical variant of the renewal movement of the sixties that came about when churches and confessional political parties began to emphasize the need for radical social and political commitment within the Christian faith. CvS strived for a new contemporary identity by uniting Christianity and Marxism, two forces hitherto considered incompatible. CvS was part of an international movement that reflected the polarized political and social situation especially in South America, where the mix of Christianity and Marxism was known as “Liberation Theology” and in Europe perennially threatened by the Cold War. This article investigates the rise of CvS as a fundamentalist movement and explores its development towards a differentiated progressive mentality group. In the end, CvS did not survive. Its decline is described and interpreted against the backdrop of a changing political and religious environment.
PubDate: 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
- Literature alerts
Authors: George Harinck; Hans Krabbendam, Kristien Suenens, Amr Ryad Bart Wallet
PubDate: 2021-10-01T00:00:00Z
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