NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 73, Issue 2, 2019

Judaism and slavery in the (Early) Modern Dutch history are connected in a paradoxical way. Jewish merchants played a minor, but substantial role in the initial stages of the Dutch transatlantic slavery and are sometimes accused of having contributed disproportionately to its growth. As a matter of fact, it has been claimed that one of the first documented slaves on Dutch territory was a Jewish slave, property of Jewish masters (the slave Elieser). On the other hand, Jews and (descendants of) slaves sometimes find each other in a shared history of being victim of violence, oppression and discrimination. In light of this, the phenomenon of the Keti Koti Dialogue Tables is of particular interest. The Keti Koti Dialogue Tables are an invention of the Surinamese slave-descendant Mercedes Zandwijken and the Dutch Jew Machiel Keestra. The Keti Koti Dialogue Tables are meant to commemorate the Dutch role in the transatlantic slavery by bringing together descendants of slaves and white Dutch people. In the past five years Keti Koti Dialogue Tables have been organized at different places in the Netherlands and up to 5000 persons have participated. The Keti Koti Dialogue Tables are explicitly inspired by the Jewish Seder meal. As in the Seder meals questions are asked (why are we here tonight?), symbolic food is eaten and songs are sung. In this article I will study the Keti Koti Dialogue Tables against the background of the Seder meal through the theoretical lenses of Multidirectional Memory (Rothberg 2009) and Transfer of Ritual (Langer e.a. 2006). With the help of other special-purpose Haggadot (manuals for the Seder meal), for i.e. the LGBTQ community and ‘earth justice’, I will show that the Seder meal forms a particular useful locus for experiencing and sharing feelings of hope for peace, justice, inclusiveness and dialogue.

In the late 16th century there was a broad academic discussion about the relationship between faith and predestination, not only in reformed theology but within the Roman-Catholic and the Lutheran denominations as well. In the Reformed tradition there were supporters of a strong Calvinistic particularism on the one hand and on the other hand there were attempts to overcome the ‘decretum absolutum’ by arguing for a humanistic compromise, which seems to be the motive behind Jacobus Arminius' (1560-1609) thinking. These debates led to the Synod of Dordt and the doctrines it produced, both of which are commemorated in 2018 and 2019. The Lutheran confessional writings (Formula of Concord, 1577) do not present a theologically convincing doctrine of predestination, as opposed to the sound argument developed by Aegidius Hunnius (1550-1603) in the doctrine of ‘praedestinatio ex praevisa fide’.

The Roman Catholic Apostolic Church in Curaçao promoted the literary writing in the creole language Papiamentu in the 1920s and 1930s. The literary authors were native speakers of the language. Their prose writing was meant to promote Catholicism, both its religious creeds and, more particularly, its principles for everyday life. This creativity was unprecedented and grew in specifically demanding times for the missionary church, while Curaçao society rapidly industrialized. Missionary work was threatened by modern pleasures and comforts that loosened the bond of the people with the missionaries. This literary ‘propaganda’, though appreciated for being in Papiamentu, was shoved aside in the 1940s by secularized writing in the creole vernacular. Nonetheless, a firm stepping stone for writing in Papiamentu had been laid down.