Notes on Contributors
Najib George Awad
PhD, is an Arab-American (originally from Syria) theologian, religious studies scholar, author and poet. He was Professor of Christian Theology and Eastern Christian Thought and director of the PhD Program in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford International University, Connecticut USA. His latest monographs in English are Orthodoxy in Arabic Terms (2015), Umayyad Christianity (2018), and After-Mission, Beyond Evangelicalism: The Indigenous ‘Injīliyyūn’ in the Arab-Muslim Context of Syria-Lebanon (2020).
Henk van den Belt
PhD, is Professor of Systematic Theology at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, VU Amsterdam, and director of the Herman Bavinck Center for Reformed and Evangelical Theology. He has edited Restoration through Redemption: John Calvin Revisited (2013) and published on the authority of Scripture, the history of Reformed theology, neocalvinism and pneumatology. He is an ordained minister of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, and serves at the IRTI Management Team.
Nadine Bowers Du Toit
PhD, is Associate Professor in Theology and Development (Diaconia) at the Faculty of Theology, University of Stellenbosch. Her research focuses on the intersection between religion and social justice, with a special focus on the role of faith communities in the South African context. Nadine currently serves as the vice president of the International Academy of Practical Theology.
Jaeseung Cha
PhD, is Associate Professor of Foundational and Constructive Theology at New Brunswick Theological Seminary and a General Synod professor of the Reformed Church in America. His publications include Doctrine of the Atonement in Seven Theologians (2014), Why am I still a Christian (2020), and articles and book chapters on theological methodology, Reformed ecclesiology, Christ and Daoism, and the atonement.
David Douglas Daniels III
PhD, is the Henry Winters Luce Professor of World Christianity at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, USA (1987–present) and the Professor
David Fergusson
PhD, is Regius Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge. He was the former Professor of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh (2000–2020). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the British Academy. Recently he co-edited the three-volume History of Scottish Theology (2019).
Jan Jorrit Hasselaar
PhD, is economist and theologian. He directs the Amsterdam Centre for Religion & Sustainable Development at the Faculty of Religion and Theology, VU University. He chaired the working group on sustainability of the Dutch Council of Churches (2011–2018). He is a Research Fellow of the University of the Western Cape. His main work is on theology as a perspective on the good life based on hope in conversation with economics, religion and society at large. A recent publication is Water in Times of Climate Change: A Values-driven Dialogue (2021).
Jozef Mepibozef Nelsun Hehanussa
PhD, is a fulltime lecturer at the Faculty of Theology of the Universitas Kristen Duta Wacana in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He teaches Church History, Ecumenism and Social Theology. He is an ordained minister of the Protestant Church in Western Indonesia. His publications include Menapaki Jalan Reformasi (Walking the Path of Reform, 2021) and Kekristenan Di Asia (Christianity in Asia, 2021).
Allan J. Janssen†
(1948–2020) PhD, was an affiliate professor of Theological Studies at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary and a General Synod professor of the Reformed Church in America. His publications include Kingdom, Office, and Church: A Study of A.A. van Ruler’s Doctrine of Ecclesiastical Office (2006); A Collegial Bishop? Classis and Presbytery at Issue (2010, edited with Leon van den Broeke); Confessing the Faith Today: A Fresh Look at the Belgic Confession (2016); Constitutional Theology: Notes on the Book of Church Order of the Reformed Church in America (2019); A Collegial Bishop Revisited: Classis and Presbytery at Issue (2021, edited with Leon van den Broeke). He served the congregations in
Klaas-Willem de Jong
PhD, LLM, is Assistant Professor of Church Polity at the Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam/Groningen and an ordained minister of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands. He published on various themes such as church history, the history of the classical Reformed liturgy in the Netherlands, church polity and the relationship between state law and ecclesial law. He is co-founder of the Society for Protestant Church Polity and the Journal International Studies in Protestant Church Polity.
Viktória Kóczián
MA, is a Reformed theologian currently working on her PhD dissertation at the VU Amsterdam, in the area of migration and ecclesiology with special emphasis on the theology of catholicity and unity in relation to socio-cultural identities. She obtained her master of theology at the University of Edinburgh. She is an ordained minister of the Reformed Church in Hungary.
Philipp Pattberg
PhD, is Professor of Transnational Environmental Governance and Policy, and head of the Environmental Policy Analysis department at the Institute for Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, VU Amsterdam. He is currently the director of the inter-faculty Amsterdam Sustainability Institute and general director of the Netherlands Research School for Socio-Economic and Natural Sciences of the Environment (SENSE). He has published widely on climate change governance, in particular with regards to the effectiveness, accountability and legitimacy of non-state climate action.
Louise C. Prideaux
PhD, is a lay church leader and resident theologian in the Mission Community of Littleham-cum-Exmouth with Lympstone in Devon, UK. She published Approaching the Complex, Cultural ‘Other’: Towards a Renewal of Christian Cultural Engagement in the Reformed Tradition (PhD thesis Exeter University, 2020). She also teaches music.
Emanuel Gerrit Singgih
PhD, is a minister emeritus of the Protestant Church in Western Indonesia and professor at the Theological Faculty, Duta Wacana Christian University,
Peter-Ben Smit
PhD, is Professor of Contextual Biblical Interpretation (Dom Hélder Câmara Chair) at VU Amsterdam and Professor (by special appointment) of Ancient Catholic Church Structures and the History and Doctrines of the Old Catholic Churches at Utrecht University. Recent research focuses on public theological topics such as crisis in biblical texts and their reception, resulting in the editorship of Crisis as a Catalyst: Early Christian Texts and the Covid-19 Pandemic, thematic issue of the Journal for the Study of the New Testament (43, 2021).
Thandi Soko-de Jong
MA, is a PhD candidate at the Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands. She received her research master in African Studies at the African Studies Centre, University of Leiden, and a master in Theology and Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Her research interests include Intercultural Theology and theological topics that are devoted to the perspectives of African Christian theologies.
Willem van Vlastuin
PhD, is Professor of Theology and Spirituality of Reformed Protestantism at the VU Amsterdam. He is also Dean of the seminary of the Hersteld Hervormde Kerk at this university and research associate at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein. He is an ordained minister of the Hersteld Hervormde Kerk. His publications include Be Renewed: A Theology of Personal Renewal (2014) and Catholic Today: A Reformed Conversation on Catholicity (2020).
Pieter Vos
PhD, is Professor of Military Chaplaincy Studies and Associate Professor of Ethics at Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam/Groningen. He is director of the International Reformed Theological Institute and Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Reformed Theology. His publications include The Law of God: Exploring God and Civilization (2014, edited with Onno Zijlstra); Liturgy and Ethics: New Contributions from Reformed Perspectives (2018, edited); and Longing for the Good Life: Virtue Ethics after Protestantism (2020).
Jan Dirk Th. Wassenaar
PhD, is an ordained minister of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and an associated researcher at the Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam/Groningen. In 1999 he obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the Dutch theologian dr. O. Noordmans (1871–1956). He mainly publishes in the field of church history and church order.
Elizabeth Welch
PhD, is an ordained minister of the United Reformed Church in the UK. She was a former Synod Moderator and Moderator of the General Assembly, served as the Reformed Co-chair of the International Reformed-Anglican Dialogue (2015–2020), and is Chair of the Society for Ecumenical Studies, UK (2010 to present). Recently she published The Holy Spirit and Worship: Transformation and Truth in the Theologies of John Owen and John Zizioulas (2020).
Annemarieke van der Woude
PhD, received her doctoral degree in Old Testament Studies. She is an ordained minister in a liberal congregation and a former pastor in a nursing home. She is also a lecturer in Spiritual Care at Radboud University, Nijmegen. She contributes to the Dutch debate on euthanasia and completed life by regular publications in national newspaper Trouw.
Heleen Zorgdrager
PhD, is Professor of Systematic Theology and Gender Studies at the Protestant Theological University, Amsterdam, and a visiting professor of Ecumenical Theology at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, Ukraine. She publishes on postcolonial debates about sexuality, gender, religion, and ‘traditional values’ versus human rights, and on rethinking Protestant soteriology from the tradition of theosis. She is an ordained minister of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands and serves as a member of the IRTI Management Team.