Dutch Reformed Minister Research Articles

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow

Visit to Riebeeck East, 17 October 2019

The Congregation of Albany (Riebeeck-Oos) was established in 1831. The first clergymen were Presbyterians from Scotland: Rev G Morgan of Somerset East was appointed Custodian and Rev John Pears became the first resident minister in 1839. In 1841 Rev Adrian Roux was appointed as the first South African Dutch Reformed Minister for this congregation. It is said that he named the town and used an old wagon house at Mooimeisiesfontein for services.

Om mens en menselijkheid

Abstract In May 1945, shortly after the Liberation of the Netherlands, Dutch Reformed minister Willem Banning (1888-1971) published a sketch of a ‘personalistic socialism’. Shortly thereafter, he became one of the founding fathers of the renewed Dutch Labor Party. At the first convention of the new party he proposed that the process of renewal of socialism had to be informed by ‘spiritual values’. In Dutch historiography, the role of Banning as one of the founders of the Dutch Labor Party was never really been understood as religiously or even ideologically motivated. The so-called ‘Breakthrough-movement’ – which sought a new synthesis between political action and religious or ideological inspiration – has been generally interpreted in terms of opportunism: in order to persuade Catholic and Protestant workers to vote for the Labor Party, some spiritually and morally loaded vocabulary was added and the harsh anti-religious affiliation of classic socialist politics was (temporarily) toned down. In this article, I propose a new analysis of the breakthrough-movement, inspired by new studies on public debate in the Netherlands and in Europe between 1918 and 1960 and by an in-depth analysis of the intellectual development of Banning. This leads to the conclusion that the spiritual and religious sources of inspiration of the breakthrough movement should be seen as a turning point in the Dutch debate on the essence of humankind and his/her role in society, church and politics in a period still problematically labelled by the metaphor of ‘pillarization’.

The retirement crisis of South African Dutch Reformed ministers: An empirical study

There has been a backlash from recently graduated proponents of the Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa that they are unemployed not just because of dwindling church member numbers, but mainly because contract posts are being filled by retired ministers and not by the proponents. International research suggests that the reason retired ministers continue working is not necessarily because they want to, but because they do not have sufficient retirement savings. The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of Dutch Reformed ministers who would reach retirement age within the next 5 years, in an effort to establish their preparedness for retirement. The respondents were sent a link to an online questionnaire and 147 useable questionnaires were returned, representing a response rate of 47.7%. The results indicated that almost half of the respondents stated that they would want to continue working in a part-time ministerial post after retirement and that the ministers’ motivation to continue working was directly linked to their lack of financial provision for retirement. A major cause for concern is the high number of respondents who selected the ‘uncertain’ response option for most of the retirement questions, as they are so close to retirement. An intervention to incorporate financial management specifically in theological training is urgently needed.

Die rol van coping in die verband tussen geestelike welstand en depressie by predikante

The role of coping in the relationship between spiritual wellbeing and depression amongst ministers. The aim of this study was to determine the role of coping in the relationship between spiritual well-being and depression among ministers. The research group consisted of 53 Dutch Reformed ministers, all serving in the Northern Cape. Coping was measured by means of the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Questionnaire (Carver, Scheier & Weintraub 1989), spiritual well-being by means of the Spiritual Well-being Questionnaire (Gomez & Fisher 2003:1977), and depression by means of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer & Brown 1996:1−2). The results of this study indicated that problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping showed no direct relationship with depression. Problem- focused coping also plays no significant role in the relationship between spiritual well-being and depression. Emotion-focused coping, however, plays a role in the relationship between environment-related spiritual well-being and depression. Significant negative relationships between spiritual well-being and depression were found. A significant positive relationship was found between dysfunctional coping and depression. Dysfunctional coping was identified as a mediator in the relationship between personal spiritual well-being and depression. The results of this study are supported by the literature.

Preachers Between Inspiration and Instruction: Dutch Reformed Ministers Without Academic Education (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries)

No schoolmasters, artisans or others who have not studied for the ministry shall be admitted to the ministry, unless there is an assurance of singular gifts of godliness, humility, modesty, common sense, and discretion, together with gifts of eloquence.1 These words are recorded as article VIII of the Church Order of Dordt of 1619, which is con sidered to have been the model for the Dutch Reformed Church

Requirements for Dutch Reformed Ministers, 1570-1620

Requirements for Dutch Reformed Ministers, 1570-1620

Testimony to Theo: Vincent van Gogh's Witness of Faith

Between May 1875 and December 1879, Vincent van Gogh's life was marked by a devout evangelical piety, distinctly different from what had gone before. Although raised in a religious family, his father a Dutch Reformed minister in the Groningen tradition, van Gogh barely mentions religion in his early letters. His religious fervor deepened considerably, however, sometime during 1875, while he was living in Paris. Van Gogh's letters dating from May 1875 are increasingly filled with biblical quotations and religious reflections. His sister-in-law, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, in describing van Gogh's character during this period wrote, “that was Vincent's aim—to humble himself, to forget himself, ‘mourir à soi-meme,’ (to sacrifice every personal desire), that was the ideal he tried to reach as long as he sought his refuge in religion, and he never did a thing by halves.”

The Social Roots of Dutch Pietism in the Middle Colonies

When Godfridus Dellius, Dutch Reformed minister at Albany, surveyed the religious situation of the Middle Colonies in 1694, he found little to cheer him. In addition to the recent deaths of two colleagues and the political upheaval in New York, Dominie Dellius lamented the intrusion of William Bertholf into the Dutch churches in New Jersey. Bertholf, a cooper by trade, openly flaunted his independence from both the Netherlands ecclesiastical authorities and the orthodox New York clergy. With pietist leanings, Bertholf had ingratiated himself with Dutch communicants on the New Jersey frontier. “He will now not neglect anything to carry out his designs,” Dellius warned, and “soon some marvelous kind of theology will develop here.”

A view of evolution by a Christian biologist

This paper, which originated as an address to a gathering of Dutch Reformed Ministers in Potchefstroom, deals with the response of a Christian to concepts of evolution. The paper looks at the concept of “the beginning”, the origin of life , genetics, mutation and natural selection, the origin of diversity or speciation, man as a biological species, the missing link (in which attention is given to various theories), and finally theories of human evolution. These include the neoteny theory, the savannah theory and the aquatic theory. Following a discussion of the various aspects of these theories, the authors go on to a discussion of the evolution of intelligence and culture, and reach the conclusion that “for a Christian, evolution may help him to understand more about God and his love and his work, and also then to have more security in the belief in God”.