Protestant Theological University (abbreviated as PThU; Dutch : Protestantse Theologische Universiteit) is a theological university with locations in two Dutch cities: Amsterdam and Groningen. The Protestant Theological University primarily caters for ministerial education and as such is one of three institutes recognised by the PKN, but it is also possible to study general (Calvinist) theology without wishing to become a minister.
The university was founded in 1854 as the Theological School ("Theologische School") by the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands, a church resulting from a schism in 1834, to provide for theological education for its ministers. The name was changed to Theological College ("Theologische Hogeschool") in 1939 and finally to Theological University in 1986, after a reform in the Dutch university/polytechnic system.
In 1892, a large part of the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands merged with another group split from the mainstream Dutch Reformed Church to form the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which founded a new Calvinist university in Amsterdam: the Free University. This university also has a theological faculty, but the college at Kampen remained a separate institution.
In 1944, another schism within the Reformed Church in the Netherlands occurred, called the Liberation ("Vrijmaking"), which resulted in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated). This new church also had a need for its own ministerial education institute, and so a new university was founded from parts of the Theological University: Kampen Theological University of the Reformed Church (Liberated).
In 2010, the PThU moved from Kampen to Amsterdam and Groningen.
After the Reformed Church in the Netherlands merged with the Dutch Reformed Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in 2004 to form the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN), the Protestant Theological University became part of the PKN. It is run on its behalf by a board of curators.
On 13 April 2022 the PThU announced its intention to move the university to Utrecht. [1] On 21 April 2022, the general synod of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) confirmed that decision. [2] The PThU aims to start in Utrecht on 1 September 2024.
The Protestant Church in the Netherlands is the largest Protestant denomination in the Netherlands, being both Calvinist and Lutheran.
Kampen is a city and municipality in the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. A member of the former Hanseatic League, it is located at the lower reaches of the river IJssel.
Abraham Kuyper was the Prime Minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905, an influential neo-Calvinist theologian and a journalist. He established the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, which upon its foundation became the second largest Calvinist denomination in the country behind the state-supported Dutch Reformed Church.
The Christian Reformed Church in North America is a Protestant Calvinist Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. Having roots in the Dutch Reformed Church of the Netherlands, the Christian Reformed Church was founded by Dutch immigrants in 1857 and is theologically Calvinist.
The Dutch Reformed Church was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch royal family and the foremost Protestant denomination until 2004. It was the larger of the two major Reformed denominations, after the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was founded in 1892. It spread to the United States, South Africa, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, and various other world regions through Dutch colonization. Allegiance to the Dutch Reformed Church was a common feature among Dutch immigrant communities around the world and became a crucial part of Afrikaner nationalism in South Africa.
The Remonstrants is a Protestant movement that split from the Dutch Reformed Church in the early 17th century. The early Remonstrants supported Jacobus Arminius, and after his death, continued to maintain his original views called Arminianism against the proponents of Calvinism. Condemned by the synod of Dort (1618–1619), the Remonstrants remained a small minority in the Netherlands. In the middle of the 19th century, the Remonstrant Brotherhood was influenced by the liberal Dutch theological movement.
Herman Bavinck was a Dutch Calvinist theologian and churchman. He was a significant scholar in the Calvinist tradition, alongside Abraham Kuyper, B. B. Warfield, and Geerhardus Vos.
The history of religion in the Netherlands has been characterized by considerable diversity of religious thought and practice. From 1600 until the second half of the 20th century, the north and west had embraced the Protestant Reformation and were Calvinist. The southeast was predominately Catholic. Associated with immigration from Arab world of the 20th century, Muslims and other minority religions were concentrated in ethnic neighborhoods in the cities.
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands was the second largest Protestant church in the Netherlands and one of the two major Calvinist denominations along with the Dutch Reformed Church since 1892 until being merged into the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) in 2004. The PKN is the continuation of the Dutch Reformed Church, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Theological University of the Reformed Churches is an academic theological seminary in the Dutch city of Utrecht. It was founded on 6 December 1854 in Kampen.
The Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands is a Protestant church in the Netherlands.
Religion in the Netherlands was historically dominated by Christianity between the 10th and 20th centuries. In the late 19th century, roughly 60% of the population was Calvinist and 35% was Catholic. Since then, there has been a significant decline in both Catholic and Protestant Christianity, with Protestantism declining to such a degree that Catholicism became the foremost form of the Christian religion. The majority of the Dutch population is secular. Relatively sizable Muslim and Hindu minorities also exist.
Klaas Schilder was a Dutch Neo-Calvinist theologian and professor in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and later in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (liberated).
The Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated) (Dutch: Gereformeerde Kerken in Nederland (vrijgemaakt)) was an orthodox Calvinist federation of churches. This church body arose in 1944 out of the so-called Liberation (Vrijmaking) from the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands, when many pastors and members refused to go along with the General Synod's demand to hold to "presumed regeneration of infants" at their baptism. Klaas Schilder played an important role in the Liberation. There are currently 270 affiliated local congregations with a total of about 120,000 members in 2016.
Klaas Runia was a Dutch theologian, churchman and journalist. He studied at the Free University, Amsterdam and obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the concept of theological time in Karl Barth in 1955. In 1956 he was appointed Professor of Systematic theology at the Reformed Theological College in Geelong, Australia, where he taught until his return to the Netherlands in 1971. During his time in Australia he exerted much influence on evangelical Christians, particularly at universities and theological schools. He was also elected chairman of the Reformed Ecumenical Council from 1968 to 1976. In 1971 he was appointed Professor of Practical Theology at the Kampen Theological University. During his professorship he was heavily engaged in church affairs and was regarded as a leader of the orthodox wing of the Dutch Reformed Church, now the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. For many years he was also active as a journalist. He was editor-in-chief of Centraal Weekblad from 1972 to 1996. He also wrote many articles in the Frisian daily newspaper Friesch Dagblad. He retired in 1992, but remained active as a theologian and journalist until his death in 2006.
The 1886 Dutch Reformed Church split, also known as the Doleantie, was the name of a prominent schism in the Dutch Reformed Church that took place in 1886 and was led by a renowned minister, Abraham Kuyper. The Doleantie was not the first schism in the Dutch Reformed Church. Another schism, the Secession of 1834 (Afscheiding van 1834), had led to the formation of the Christian Reformed Church in the Netherlands (Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in Nederland).
Seakle Greijdanus was a Reformed theologian in the Netherlands, who first served in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands and later in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (Liberated).
The Reformed Political League was an orthodox Protestant political party in the Netherlands. The GPV is one of the predecessors of the Christian Union. The party was a testimonial party.
Jan N. Bremmer is a Dutch academic and historian. He served as a professor of Religious Studies and Theology at the University of Groningen. He specializes in history of ancient religion, especially ancient Greek religion and early Christianity.
The Theological University of Apeldoorn (TUA) is the Dutch theological university of the Christian Reformed Churches. More than 130 students study at the university in Apeldoorn. The theological course lasts six years. The student is in the bachelor's program for the first three years. This has a more orientating character, and includes the languages Classic Greek and Koine Greek, Latin and Biblical Hebrew. In the three-year master's program that follows, further studies and specialization are discussed. The training is specifically aimed at educating pastors. Furthermore, one tries to keep together the reformed character of the faith and the church and the scientific level of the university. The syllabus consists of subjects such as ethics, apologetics, Old and New Testament, canonical studies, dogmatics, church history, church law and civil subjects.
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