Studium Generale: 'Troubles and Temptations (...) Post Christian society' - Janneke Stegeman
Lecture by Janneke Stegeman
Out of the Eighty Years War against Catholic Spain, the Netherlands emerged as a Calvinist country. The Dutch combined lust for freedom with almost theocratic Calvinist zealousness. Today, the Netherlands is one of the world’s most secularized countries. In Dutch post Christian society, Christian traditions are a source of shock and anger (Nashville) as well as pride and even feelings of superiority (on the basis of our ‘JewishChristian’ values).
Stegeman claims we cannot understand our society without a basic understanding of the ways in which Christianity shaped Europe for better and for worse, of the Calvinist roots of the Netherlands, of Christian entanglements with colonialism and racism and of recent flirt with our Christian roots.
Janneke Stegeman (Woudenberg, 1980) is a biblical scholar and theologian. She earned her PhD (2014) with a study on the role of conflict in the development of religious tradition. Stegeman is interested in the interaction between religion and conflict and indecent theology. She regularly gives lectures, preaches and writes articles on these topics. She cofounded TITS, (The Indecent Theology Society) and GeNOT (Genootschap voor Onbetamelijke Theologie).
Her latest publication is Alles Moet Anders! Bevrijdingstheologie voor Witte Nederlanders (2017), an essay about her thoughts on liberation theology, focused on people that share her context: white Dutch citizens with a Christian background.