Prof. dr. H.E. Zorgdrager

Prof. dr. Heleen Zorgdrager

Chair of Systematic Theology and Genderstudies

Personal introduction 

Welcome on my personal webpage. Nice that you show an interest in my academic work. I teach systematic theology and genderstudies at the Protestant Theological University in Amsterdam and am the Chair of the department Intercultural Theology and Missiology.

My courses at PThU in 2022-2023 are on "Saved, not yet Safe: Gender, Christian Religion and Community in Context", "Worship" (classes on liturgy and gender, and on Eastern-Orthodox liturgy), "Sexuality and Gender in Bible and Society", and 'Research Laboratory".

Besides being a professor at PThU, it is a pleasure and privilege to be a visiting professor to the Institute of Ecumenical Studies, Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine, where I teach mainly on ecumenical theology.

The areas of my current research are:

• Theology, gender, transgender, sexuality, sexual diversity : debates and developments in the Netherlands and in Eastern Europe
• Public/political theology
  • public theology responding to Russia's war against Ukraine
  • public theology responding to (Christian) natonalism and populism
  • public theology adressing legacies of slavery and colonialism

I am part of the research team of the NWO-financed project "Church and Slavery in the Dutch Empire: History, Theology, and Heritage" and of the international  research group "Orthodox Kaleidoscope" (on the study of lived Orthodoxy). 

I welcome potential Ma and PhD students, both from the Netherlands and abroad, especially those interested in iintersectional research on ecumenical/intercultural theology, systematic/political theology, and on topics such as gender, sexuality, legacies of slavery and colonialism, post-Soviet societies and church. Please, feel free to contact me with your ideas and proposals (hezorgdrager@pthu.nl).

Short CV

I received my formation as a theologian in Kampen (NL) and Lutherstadt Wittenberg (former German Democratic Republic). My doctoral thesis was on Schleiermacher and the meaning of gender in his writings. I practiced in the church as a student's chaplain in Leiden and as pastor of the Reformed church in Leersum. From 2005-2010, I followed the call for an international responsibility as a program manager of Kerk in Actie, Protestant Church in the Netherlands, in the field of mission and ecumenical cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe. Part of the job was teaching at the Institute of Ecumenical Studies in Lviv, Ukraine - it has become my second home base. Since 2010, I belong to the staff of the Protestant Theological University, initially in Leiden and from 2012 in Amsterdam.

To share my passions with others, I contribute as an active member to

• the Reference Group on Human Sexuality of the World Council of Churches 
• management team of the International Theological Institute of Reformed Theology (IRTI) 
• the European Society of Women in Theological Research
• Interkerkelijk Besturen Overleg - Seksueel Misbruik in Pastorale Relaties (interchurch administrative commission to address sexual abuse in pastoral relations)
• moderator of the Editorial Board of Reformed World (WCRC)
• and several other academic boards and networks.

PhD projects successully completed

Iemke Epema, Niets gaat ooit verloren. Transcendentie en transformatie in het denken van Charles Taylor, Middelburg, Skandalon, 2018 (Promotiedatum 1 juni 2018)

Carola Dahmen, and it was not good anymore. The ecofeminist theologies of Sallie McFague and Catherine Keller and the dialectical theology of K.H. Miskotte, Middelburg: Skandalon, 2024 (promotiedatum 30 september 2024)

 PhD projects under current supervision:

 Stanislav Bondar, Theology of Dignity: Towards a Faith-Based Model of Socio-Political Reconciliation in post-Maidan Ukraine 

 Marie Hansen-Couturier, (Re)turning to wounds: carnal theology after sexualized abuse  

 Stephan Kurtzahn, Waaijmans omvormingstheorie en haar operationalisering naar de geestelijke begeleiding als een brug tussen kerk en religieuze zinzoeker   

 Donate Beatrix Philbert-Nieveld, Church and Slavery in the Dutch Empire: History, Theology, and Heritage 

 Elim Wilsen Taruk, Towards A New Contextual Theology of Intercaste Marriage in the Context of Toraja 

 Loïs Oosterhof-van Bruggen, The Transformation of the Gendered Self: Sarah Coakley and Oliver O'Donovan

Some publications

Published at Brill, 2023: The Calling of the Church in Times of Polarization Studies in Reformed Theology Vol 46 (Open Access)

Published at KokBoekencentrum, June 2019: Wondermooi, zoals U mij gemaakt hebt. Handreiking voor gelovige transgender personen en werkers in de kerk.

Published at Vallentine Mitchell, January 2017:The Jews of Lemberg; A Journey to Empty Places