Kerk en Theologie - Volume 73, Issue 3, 2022

In western society the unequal division of goods is justified to a substantial degree with an appeal to the meritocratic ideal. This ideal has several problematic aspects. This article explores an alternative basis for the division of goods based on the works of two fathers of the early church: Ambrose of Milan and Gregory of Nyssa. Both authors emphasize the common nature all humans share from an incarnational perspective and its implications for a just handling of wealth and property. The resulting approach to the division of goods centered around human connectedness contributes to the common good of society.

Dutch spatial planning flourished after the World War II until the nineties. Then, neoliberal politics took over: the government withdraw from its directing and controlling involvement and left spatial development to the ‘market’. In reaction to several serious problems that were not solved by the market, a new government started spring 2022 with the ambition to reclaim spatial planning policy and provide all citizens with sufficient and affordable housing. This article urges churches and congregations to get involved in the upcoming redevelopment of the Dutch landscape by actively participating in citizens collectives for spatial planning with their theological texts and practices.

We challenge the secular view in the Netherlands that religion is directly responsible only for violence. A different view arises when we focus on the concept of open commensality in the parable of the feast, as worked out by the New Testament scholar John Dominic Crossan. The plot of this parable is that a person gives an unannounced feast, sends his servants to invite the guest who refrain from coming. The host then replaces these guests by anybody from the street corners in an open meal of radical inclusion and an equal sharing of food. This in its turn models the shift from hostility to hospitality. We are convinced that open commensality illuminates and evokes the non-violent dimensions of Biblical texts and gives a more nuanced view on religious violence.

In this article, the authors investigate the character of spiritual leadership by ministers in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. They determine that the Protestant Church has become plural in character, especially regarding faith experience. The authors refute the tendency in practical theology to focus on personal leadership. Spiritual leadership in the contemporary church requires a dynamic equilibrium of personal qualities, expertise and a suitable ordination.

Those who serve in ecclesial ministry are bound to official secrecy. Does this prohibit any form of sharing with others, particularly if those others are bound to secrecy themselves? This contribution first deals with terminology: the secrecy or the confession is theologically to be seen as the basis of official of professional secrecy of ministers. After a short explanation of professional secrecy in public law, privacy is being dealt with as important to the context today. Then this article describes church polity provisions in this respect, both in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PCN). Finally, it comes to the issue of sharing with others, dealing in particular with case law in PCN discipline which seems to permit sharing within certain limitations.