Seminars
If you are entered into a master's programme at the PThU, you can choose to follow one of our seminar courses. If you are a master's student at another recognised university, you can attend seminars at the PThU as a 'secondary student'. Alumni, pastors and other interested parties can also follow one or more courses from the regular master's education of the PThU as a 'contractor'. All seminars are offered in semester 1. You can take seminars in period 1 (September to November) or period 2 (November to January).
Seminar courses 2024-2025
In the coming autumn semester (September 2024 - January 2025), the Protestant Theological University is offering several English-language seminars with a workload of 7.5 ECTS. The courses will be offered in Utrecht. Each student chooses two seminars (courses) per term (a semester at our university consists of two terms). Most lectures are scheduled on one specific day of the week (Wednesday or Friday), with classes in the morning and in the afternoon. Below is a brief description of each subject. For more information on the content of a course, please contact the course coordinator.
Seminars period 1 (September - November)
Lecturer
Dr Erik Olsman
Language
Engels
Content
Many people have spiritual questions during different phases in life. Frequently, they ask spiritual questions (in this course used interchangeably with existential questions), when facing illness, serving the army or having a criminal record. This seminar welcomes both Christian students and students with other religions or no religion. The objective of this seminar is to stimulate reflection on spiritual care, in the first place among chaplains (in spe), and secondly, among other professionals who (will) provide professional care for others. During several meetings attention will be paid to the reflection on one’s own spirituality, which fits within the Protestant Theological University that recognizes the importance of one’s own spirituality in providing (multifaith) spiritual care to others and in teaching others on spiritual care. The lesson is based on classes, available evidence (for instance discussed during class), classes, one’s own authentic spirituality, and – if applicable – one’s own work experience.
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturers
- Prof Dr Thijs Tromp, Endowed professor of the Diaconate
- Dr Erica Meijers, assistant professor of the Diaconate
Language
English
Content
The seminar is about Christian Social Practice (Diakonia) in Europe i.e., faith-based work for social justice, good care and inclusion, especially for people in the most vulnerable situations in society. In this seminar Christian Social Practice will not be understood as the practical application of Christian faith, but as an essential element of the identity of Christian communities. This seminar focusses on the identity of Diakonia as a contextual practice. It includes the following topics: 1) theological foundations and perspectives on Diakonia (including key concept like charity, justice, inclusion, relationality and human dignity, the relation between Eucharist, meal sharing and Diakonia, conviviality, and the empty moment, 2) the position of diaconal work in Church and society (including a case study in a diaconal project of a Church or a diaconal organisation), and 3) the ethics of Diakonia with an emphasis on the value of mutuality and the dynamics of power within caring relationships.
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturers
- Prof Dr Bernhard Reitsma, Professor of Church and Theology with special focus on Islam
Language
English
Content
Islam is emancipating in the Netherlands. Although the number of Muslims in statistics has remained stable for years at 5-6% of the Dutch population, Islam has been in the spotlight since 11 September 2001. In several countries with an Islamic majority, Christians are struggling and this also affects Christians in the Netherlands. Conversely, Muslims in the Netherlands face demonstrable discrimination.
Christians react very differently to the presence of Islam, which has been increasingly ‘emancipating’ over the past 25 years. How do you look at Islam now? Muslims have a very clear theological and historical view of Christianity, but vice versa? Is there a biblical-Christian view of Islam? How do you interpret Islam in the light of the Christian confession that God has revealed himself in Jesus Christ? And what does that mean for dealing with Muslims?
In this module, we focus on a biblical-theological view of the church's calling in relation to Islam. This also means looking inwards. Who are we? What is church-ness today? What are our deepest values?
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturer
Prof Rick Benjamins, professor of liberal theology
Language
English
Content
Liberal theology has its roots in the beginning of the nineteenth century. It criticized orthodox supernaturalism and Biblicism but underlined the importance of religion. At the beginning of the twentieth century it was sharply criticized by dialectical theologians, who forced it to redefine itself. In the course of the twentieth century liberal theology was criticized for being bourgeois by liberation theology, and fell victim to sharp critique from the postmodern side. Yet, a liberal theological tradition developed that tries to mediate Christianity and (post)modern culture.
In this course we will ask, what is liberal theology. We will pay attention to its great scholars, Schleiermacher, Troeltsch and Tillich. Next, we will focus on liberal theology – a modern way of doing theology – in a postmodern context. We will draw our attention to the work of Richard Kearney, John Caputo and Catherine Keller, whose theology presupposes a liberal theology, yet incorporates a postmodern point of view, and still upholds a religious perspective. They developed a theology of ‘God after God’ from various backgrounds and in different ways, yet seem to accord in several respects.
Lecture day
Friday
Lecturer
- Prof Dr Wim Moehn, endowed professor of history of Reformed Protestantism on behalf of the Reformed Union (Gereformeerde Bond)
Language
English
Content
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the oldest and most fundamental practices of the Christian Church. In baptism, the life of the person receiving baptism is connected to the triune God. In reformed Protestantism, baptism is closely linked to the notion of the covenant. From the outset, the covenant has been very important in the defence of the practice of child baptism. Today, the practice of baptizing children is called into question, because children do not have the opportunity to make their own decisions as autonomous individuals. What does this mean for the perception of baptism and the theology of baptism, in a time when autonomy of the subject is paramount and the notion that one is part of a community plays much less of a role?
This year's seminar will have an extra dimension, as we will not only reflect on these questions in Utrecht, but also during a week in Debrecen, together with Hungarian teachers and students. The working language will be English. During the week in Hungary, we will read Bullinger and Barth, but also get intensively acquainted with the different contexts in which baptism functions. This is different in Hungary, with a mostly (still) folk church culture in the East, than in the Netherlands, but there are also differences between the Hungarian speakers in Hungary and Romania. The week explicitly includes space for meeting Hungarian-speaking students and Hungarian culture.
The week is scheduled for Saturday 26 October to Saturday 2 November 2024 in the Debrecen area, with lectures and meetings taking place from Monday to Friday. Both travel days will fall on the aforementioned Saturdays for now. This week is a wonderful opportunity to look across the border theologically in a relatively simple way. The visit to Hungary is an integral part of the course.
However, you can also participate separately from this seminar, although seminar students have priority. The course part in Hungary covers 3 EC, including preparation by studying some literature and a short reflection paper. If you participate in the whole course, the costs are largely or even fully covered, while for this part-course this is still uncertain.
Lecture day
Friday
Seminars period 2 (November - January)
Lecturers
- Dr Marjo Korpel, associate Professor Old Testament
- Dr Paul Sanders, assistant professor Old Testament
- Dr Bärry Hertog, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Ancient Judaism
Language
English
Content
The Bible forms part of the broad literature of the ancient Near East, as is shown by many biblical references to customs, laws, religious concepts, etc., that were common in the context of the Bible. Even in the book of Revelation a lot of imagery has parallels in the ancient Near East. Of course, our growing knowledge of ancient Near Eastern thinking sheds new light on the way the Bible was used through the ages, in Judaism as well as Christianity. Also, it has important consequences for biblical exegesis and the way in which we can use the Bible in systematic theology, preaching, and so on. In this course, students will develop insight into important theological themes in the Bible (e.g., Creation, Providence, Evil and the Devil, Morals, Covenant, Prayer, Sickness and Healing) that also play an important role in non-biblical texts from the ancient Near East. Both the correspondences and differences will be analysed. Students will write a paper in which they compare a passage or a theme from the Bible with relevant non-biblical texts from the ancient Near East. They will evaluate what the consequences are for the way in which Bible can be used in our own time and context. Knowledge of biblical Hebrew and/or Greek is recommendable. A basic introduction to Ugaritic is optional. The analysis of non-biblical texts is done on the basis of English translations.
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturers
- Dr Rob Compaijen, assistant professor Philosophy
- Prof Dr Theo Boer, Professor Ethics of Healthcare
Language
English
Content
Dignity – few concepts are so important and so contested in contemporary ethics. It is seen both as absolutely foundational for moral life and as vague, redundant concept. In this course we will investigate the idea of dignity and explore its meaning in ethics. In the first part of the course we will focus on several theological and philosophical views on dignity. Is dignity a matter of rank, of living a life of fulfilment, of being an image of God, of having the capacity for autonomy – or something else altogether? Is dignity universal or does it apply to some and not others? Is it inalienable or can it be lost? Is it even a useful concept? In the second part we will turn to issues in applied contexts in which the concept of dignity is thought to be important. Can the idea of dignity play a role in our relations to animals and perhaps even the natural world at large? How does dignity function in care ethics? What are the ramifications of human enhancement for our ideas about dignity? And what role does dignity play in (the debates on) end-of-life decision-making?
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturers
- Dr Theo Pleizier, assistant professor Practical Teology
- Dr Klaas Bom, associate professor Dogmatics
- Dr Bosco Bangura, postdoctoral researcher (intercultural theology)
Language
English
Content
The study of spiritual practices combines two dimensions. Anthropologically, these practices concern human interactions, individual experiences and cultural expressions. Theologically, spiritual practices are about God’s Spirit and the presence of the Spirit in these cultural expressions and human interactions. In this course we study spiritual practices according to these two dimensions. The first line in the course consists of the reconstruction of the pneumatological dimensions in three recent theologies from different cultural backgrounds in order to understand the relationship between cultures and the presence of the Spirit. The second line concerns the empirical study of spiritual practices according to participative and comparative methods. These practices are selected biographically and culturally. The course is research based and we aim to discover (1) how recent theologies of the Spirit interact with spiritual practices and (2) how this contributes to further understanding the interface of pneumatology and culture. During the course students work towards a scholarly article on the interface of pneumatology and culture, by studying concrete examples of spiritual practices. In the classes we create a setting of a ‘writing workshop’ with methodical contributions on research and writing and theological content on pneumatology and spirituality.
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturer
D. Kinga Zeller, associate professor Lutheran Theology
Language
English
Content
Luther speaks not only of Christ “for me”, but also repeatedly of Christ “in me”. The Lutheran theologian Niels Henrik Gregersen took up the idea of “Christ in me” to a certain extent and applied it to the whole of creation in his “Deep Incarnation” approach with an exegetical foundation. In the course, we ask how exactly Luther understands “Christ for me”, how “Christ in me” is even conceivable and what it can and should mean dogmatically and ethically if Christ is present in the whole of creation.
Lecture day
Wednesday
Lecturer
- Dr Suzan Sierksma, assistant professor New Testament
- Dr Erica Meijers, assitant professor of the Diaconate
- Dr Gert van Klinken, assistant professor Church History
Language
English
Content
In this seminar, we critically reflect on the history of slavery and its heritage today in church, theology and society. The connection between slavery and racism is central in this Seminar. It focuses on the question how to overcome discourses and practices in church and theology which confirm and prolong slavery and racism. Drawing on biblical, historical, systematic-theological and practical theological scholarship, we will discuss practices and theological justifications of slavery and racism, but also traditions of resistance and renewal. A first element of the course is slavery in the context of the first and second Testament. A second accent is the example of Jacobus E.J. Capitein, a formally enslaved black minister in the Netherlands during the 18th Century. Thirdly, we will discuss the 20th Century image of a Black Christ. We will critically read texts, analyse a movie and look for traces of slavery in Groningen and Amsterdam during two field trips. The students will conclude the Seminar with a literature review and a paper on a topic of their own choice, related to the seminar.
Lecture day
Friday
Lecturer
- Dr Marten van der Meulen, associale professor sociology of religion
Language
English
Content
It is our goal to observe, understand, articulate and critically evaluate the relationship between 'new' and 'old' forms of church, of 'liquid' and 'solid' or 'inherited' forms. Also, we try to observe, understand and critically evaluate the meaning of mission and church within a context of pioneering, church planting, diaconal-missional practices and new ecclesial communities. We study and discuss different views on mission, based on the works of Moynagh and Hoekendijk. During the first part of the course we will engage in close reading of texts of these theologians, tracing their views on mission, church and the world in their different historical contexts. The second part of our course has a strong empirical component, where we will study new forms of developing church. Informed by different views on mission, diakonia and ecclesiology, students will visit a new ecclesial community (e.g. a pioneer church, diaconal initiative, church plant) and conduct interviews and do observations. The field work and theoretical perspectives will be evaluated and discussed in class.
Lecture day
Friday
Lecturer
- Prof Dr Bernhard Reitsma, professor Church and Theology with special focus on Islam
Language
English
Content
In this course, we will explore recent theological developments in the theology of religions in so far as they have a bearing on the possibilities and praxis of intercultural encounter, learning and witness and life together. Specific attention will be given to the question of the finality of the revelation of God in Christ, the role of the Spirit and a spirituality that allows for confidence and openness and ‘prophetic dialogue’. We will study some of the challenges of interreligious encounter with specific examples in view, particularly, but not exclusively with Islam. We will also discuss the implications of new phenomena such as dual religious belonging and so-called insider movements for interreligious encounter and witness. A final area of attention will relate to the political and social challenges of living together in religiously pluralist societies.
Lecture day
Friday
Costs and conditions
Do you want to attend a seminar? This is free of charge in the following cases:
- You are a master's student at the PThU and you meet the entry requirements for the seminar.
- You are an exchange student of a partner institution of the PThU (Erasmus+ or bilateral partner) at master’s level. You pay tuition fees at your home institution and you meet the entry requirements for the seminar. You should be nominated by the Erasmus+ coordinator or international office of your home institution first, before applying for admisión as an exchange student (link). The application deadline is 1 July for the forthcoming sesmester.
If you do not meet these conditions, you can participate in the seminar as a 'contract student'. For a contract fee of € 100 per ECTS you can participate in the course. Of course, you must still meet the entry requirements for the seminar.
