He is smiling now. We are pleased to announce the successful PhD defence and ‘Promotion’ of Gil Dueck at the Vrije Universiteit which took place on Wednesday 10th May. Gill’s Thesis was entitled: ‘A Transformative Moment: Emerging Adult Faith Development in Conversation with the Theology of James E. Loder’. We extend our congratulation to Gil and to his family, his wife, parents, and children who traveled to be present. We also congratulate his IBTSC supervisor Dr Parush Parushev and his Vrije Universiteit supervisor Prof. Dr Fernando Enns. Not present on the day we also extend our congratulations to his co-supervisor Prof. Dr Nancey Murphy. A good day.
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Visiting Scholar
We are pleased to welcome Prof. Louise Kretzschmar to IBTSC Amsterdam this week. Prof Kretzschmar is currently a Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of South Africa (Unisa). Her research interests are in: Christian Ethics, Christian Spirituality, Christian leadership, moral formation, spiritual formation, Baptist studies, Feminist Theology and Ethics, Business Ethics, Leadership within an African Context. During her visit she will meet with the Rector at IBTSC and the Dutch Baptist Seminary. She will also deliver a short talk on issues of “moral and spiritual leadership in church, society, and state” at a Departmental meeting of the Vrije Universiteit on Thursday and give a lecture on ‘The education of prospective ministers as an invitation to life:…
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Nordenhaug at Herdenkingskerk
As mentioned in other posts, on Monday 2nd November 2015 the Nordenhaug lectures will take place. Josef Nordenhaug was between 1950 and 1960 the inspirational President of the first incarnation of this institution then located in Rüschlikon, Switzerland. These lectures are delivered in his memory. Last year we were delighted to receive this Photographic Biography of Josef Nordenhaug from his daughter Karin Nordenhaug Ciholas. For those interested in the history of European Baptist Church life and indeed the Rüschlikon Seminary this is a fascinating and informative book. Yesterday a former volunteer at Rüschlikon visiting the IBTS Centre looked through the book with great interest. This year the lectures to be delivered by Dr David…
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Call for Conference Papers
IBTSC will host a Conference on ‘Conflicting Convictions’ on Tuesday 3rd and Wednesday 4th of November 2015 in Baptist House, Amsterdam. This conference will explore disagreements among Christians on ‘matters that matter’ and responses to such. Already a number of people have offered papers on topics of conflict indeed perhaps encouraging some debate on a number of contested issues. We are also continuing to look for papers that will explore conflict among people who claim to hold to the same Christian ‘tradition’: its nature, causes, risks, opportunities and how such can be responded to and dealt with. Papers can be offered from a range of perspectives, biblical, theological, historical, practical. There is the opportunity…
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Different systems but same results
On Thursday 28th May 2015, George Bristow an IBTSC student successfully defended his PhD thesis in an event of promotion at the VU. In the Dutch system, a candidate’s work is submitted to at least 5 markers. It is marked and the markers decide whether the candidate is able to proceed to a public defence. This defence takes place on stage before the markers and a wider body of academics and teachers who make up the promotion committee, as well as members of the public. Following a question and answer session of some 50 minutes the meeting goes into recess while the committee decide whether the thesis has been successfully…
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Six Months On…
We have now been operational in our Amsterdam for the past six months or so. The relocation of the library and set up of the offices taking place in August 2014. In the following months set up issues continued to demand a lot of time an attention. Simple things can suddenly become BIG – e.g. when you discover that the computers have been set up in a language you don’t speak! In some ways it seems longer than six months and at other times less. Despite all that has been going on, building on the past with the support of previous and new colleagues a lot have been achieved in…
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CMU Ministers Conference
Over the past week I have completed an introductory talk https://politurgy.wordpress.com/2015/02/ and a series of three bible studies at the ministers conference hosted by the Canadian Mennonite University. On the Tuesday night I attended a fascinating panel discussion on “Where did we lose you?” which involved a panel discussion on the declining participation of ‘millennials’ in Canadian churches. The panel participants were all of this age group born some time after 1980 and represented a number of church traditions and indeed none in that one panel member was an avowed atheist but with a concern for the life of the church! A question which this posed for me is when and…
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Canada
I am presently in Canada to participate in a ministers conference organised by the Canadian Mennonite University. It seems to me that there is a strong resonance in the reading of Baptist via McClendon/Stassen or just plain old anabaptist roots with Mennonites, although I am leaning what a varied group that they like we actually are. As part of my trip I attended the launch of this book which offers some fascinating insights and may well make a contribution to the thinking of those who wish to come at issues from an Anabaptist (dare we say baptistic) perspective and yet engage with wider society and its institutions. I have bought…