DNK : Documentatieblad voor de Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis na 1800 - Volume 47, Issue 100, 2024

DNK and the historiography of international influences of and on Dutch churches

In a programmatic article in the first issue of the ‘Documentation Journal for Dutch Church History of the Nineteenth Century’, one of the themes mentioned to be addressed in this journal was the ecclesiastical influence of the Netherlands on foreign countries. Using the five aspects of this influence that were mentioned, contributions on this influence in the 99 issues are detected. The outcome is that attention to this influence in the journal has been developed over time. Especially in articles focusing on the late nineteenth and twentieth century, there was attention to the influence from abroad on Dutch church life. But the influence was by no means always through the church, but much more often through its members.

DNK and the Vatican

In the hundred issues of DNK several articles paid attention to the possibilities which the Vatican archives hold for the historiography of Dutch Catholicism. Several lists of relevant Vatican sources appeared, and several articles showed a new, although not shocking new, interpretation of specific historical events. This contribution offers an overview and evaluation of these DNK-articles.

Jasper Vree and DNK

Jasper Vree was a prominent member in DNK, whose contributions stress the importance of precision based on knowledge of both the general backgrounds of the subject-matter, the way this is being discussed, and the primary sources. In the opinion of Vree, the work of the church historian is also a way of paying respect to inspiring figures of the past, figures that set examples of thinking and acting that we may follow today.

No infallible Dordt Church Order of 1619: George Frans Gezelle Meerburg and the church order struggle after the 1834 Secession

This article tries to find an answer to the question why George F. Gezelle Meerburg (1806-1855) took an independent position in the church orderly developments of the Secession (Afscheiding) of 1834. He was pastor in the Province of Noord-Brabant and the Seceders in this province considered him as their religious and church orderly leader. A biography on Gezelle Meerburg is included to understand better his position in the church orderly developments of the Seceded Church. He was not a strong leader, a great organizer or an inspiring entrepreneur, like some of his colleagues. Still, being more a strong preacher with a not so strong physical condition, he was not shy about taking position. A proof of this is his Brabant Church Order of 1843.