As the late American theologian Stanley Grenz wrote in 2004, ‘exploring the triunity of God has developed into one of the most popular theological pursuits, and trinitarian theology has emerged as one of the most widely touted theological labels, encompassing the efforts of thinkers representing nearly every ecclesiological tradition and theological persuasion’ (Rediscovering the Triune God, p.1). In this project an attempt is made to trace the development of the doctrine of the Trinity in the West (with a special focus on the Reformed tradition), to describe the various motives behind its remarkable worldwide “renaissance”, and to evaluate its meaning for Christian faith and theology today – especially in relation to the Dutch theological scene, where until recently the trinitarian revival was largely ignored.

In this thesis an alternative approach to citizenship in a globalizing world will be developed, that fits in with the emerging literature on transnational citizenship. It will be argued that citizenship should not be defined in substantive terms, but that is better to shift attention to people’s responsibility towards the space that citizens share together: the public domain. In the global city the anxieties of identitarian loss are vigorous but at the same time the conditions for its solution through mutual recognition of difference are present. The proposed alternative will be situated within the field of political philosophy and linked with the Christian tradition where citizenship has always had a transnational connotation. However, many Church Fathers were quick to stress that this attachment to another City in no way precluded engagement with local society. The thus constructed model of citizenship will be used to contribute critically to some recent debates on the role of religion within society.

This research project includes re-thinking the leading question of Jaap van Praag, founding father of contemporary Dutch humanism, as to how humanism as a world-view and a life stance could foster spiritual resilience of people in present-day’s context of mass culture emergences such as consumerism, media hypes, xenophobia. Revisiting this question, much will depend on humanism taking a leading role in debates between different world-views, including religions. A critical and open-minded humanism, studied and aimed at in this project, is believed to further such a responsible mission. Spiritual Resilience and Humanism, chaired by Joachim Duyndam, covers contributions of about 10 to 12 researchers of humanistics, including three Noster membership applicants (Alma, Anbeek, Duyndam).
Joachim Duyndam’s contribution to the project is on exemplars (voorbeeldfiguren) and mimesis. His research is conducted from both philosophical (Heidegger, Girard, Ricoeur, Levinas) and biological sources. Starting from mimetic theory launched by Girard, the question raises whether and how there could be ‘good mimesis’, adopted as the relationship with inspiring exemplars such as moral heroes, sublime role models, etc. Although the relationship with such a ‘good exemplar’ seems to be different from the dangerous and violent mimesis as explained by Girard, it is obviously a kind of mimesis or imitation at stake. In my previous work, I have understood and articulated the imitation of inspiring exemplars in a hermeneutical way. Recently, interesting new views on mimesis are coming from biological sources, particularly from brain research. Girardian mimesis seems to have a biological basis in our mirror neurons. Resilience and resistance to mimesis and group pressure, however, also seem to have a biological basis in the brain. How can the inspiring effect of ‘good exemplars’ against dangerous and violent mimesis be understood in both a hermeneutical and a biological way?

In late modernity, religion tends to transform from a collective, solid complex of beliefs and practices into an aspect of life that needs to be cared for individually. The occasion and the setting; choice, taste and preference – all those conditions gain importance, so that religion tends to become liquid (Zygmunt Bauman).

In the project ‘A plurality of religious organizations’ (2002-2004) I have investigated the positioning of Roman-Catholic parishes in this context of individualization.  The project ‘Organizational transformations of the care for the soul’, that started in 2005 at the Tilburg Insitute for Theological Research (TOIT), has thus far laid the theoretical foundation for a concept of fluid types of being church. It has also provided an exploration of the field. I have made a distinction between between (1) fluid types of church in a religious setting; (2) ecclesial initiatives in a secular setting and (3) religious-secular activities. Under the heading of this (partly overlapping) project (2008-2012) I will elaborate on this concept and do further investigations.

The central question is: how is religion socially organized in this liquid context, and how are structure and content interrelated? The goal of the project is to gain insight into the dynamics of religion disembedding, and into the structural conditions of Christian religion in late modernity.

This practical-theological research project uses sociological and theological, mainly ecclesiological, insights. Methods are: secundary analysis, field work and surveys.

The project will result in scholarly articles and in a monograph presenting the results of the three projects within a coherent framework.

Description of a number of specific aspects of reformed spirituality: historical developments and actual relevance. I will try to show how these aspects of spirituality are rooted in specific pneumatological approaches within the reformed tradition. Attention will be given to the question in what way this reformed heritage can be made fruitful in the contemporary ecumenical encounter.

The study of Islam in interwar Europe is still in its initial phase. Many aspects of the history of Islamic movements before the flux of Muslim immigrant workers in Europe are still entirely unknown. Available studies focus mostly on local Muslim communities in Europe, which vary from one place to another. No attempt was made yet to rediscover the history of these networks on the basis of the personal archives of their actors. 

Following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, Muslim socio-political and intellectual transnational networks found Europe a suitable ground on which they organized themselves and tried to diffuse reformist ideologies. Muslim religious reformist leaders established such networks primarily to sustain pan-Islamism in Europe, thus indirectly promoting the support for their religious-political ideals in the Muslim world. 

The research will raise some preliminary research questions on the activities within the transnational networks of Muslim activities from within Europe (1919-1946) in the inter-war period.What were the activities and institutions of reformist Islam, as one of the most influential trends in modern Islamic thought, in the whole of Europe? How and why were these networks constructed? What was their role in linking Muslim communities in Europe and promoting the concepts of Islamism and anti-colonialism? To what degree did the elites within these networks succeed to exploit the scholarly, professional, social and political skills they had in lobbying and campaigning (or even entering into alliances) with western governments, diplomats, Orietalists, publishers, and the media?

The present proposal suggests a study of the neglected voice of John Chrysostom (ca. 348-407) on the topic of deification alias human transformation, a topic that attracts a current resurgence of interest. Continuity and discontinuity with regard to the human condition can be discovered along the lines of four major stages of salvation history based on the momentous changes in human-divine relation: creation of the human person, the transgression, the incarnation and redemption, and the eternal state. The authentic Chrysostomite understanding of human transformation can be evaluated by respecting the hermeneutical interplay between his ‘Antiochene’ exegesis and his theological pre-understanding centred around the ‘synkatabasis’ (divine adaptability) concept. I intend to provide a theological commentary on all relevant and significant Chrysostom texts on deification by reference to the rest of the Chrysostom corpus and to other parts of the 'Antiochene' tradition of which he is both an eminent representative and a pioneer theologian in his own right. At the end this study hopes to provide some critical building blocks for an alternative way of delineating diverging approaches to deification in the fourth century, rather than categorizing them along the lines of the somewhat problematic division of Alexandrian mysticism/allegorization and Antiochene moralism/literalism.