Chair on Legal Theology and Church Law
Position of Chair on Legal Theology and Church Law
The Chair of Legal Theology and Church Law in the Context of Religion and Society focuses on the thinking through of legal theology and church law issues and of religious freedom, injustice and law, justice and righteousness in the current and historical contexts of religion and society in national and international perspective. The Chair aims to broaden and deepen the academic, multidisciplinary and societal dimensions. Leon van den Broeke was appointed professor at the Chair on April 1, 2023.
Academic and institutional embedding
The chair is rooted in a long Reformed tradition with much attention to (denominational) Church Law. After a short period of discontinuity (2015-2020), and a longer phase (1945-2015) in which the chair, in addition to Church History, also had Church Law as its teaching assignment, it is now, on the one hand, reconnecting with the Reformed-Church Law tradition and, on the other hand, committed to both academic multidisciplinary and social deepening and broadening. This fits the profile of Utrecht Theological University.
The TUU practices theology ‘with a view to church and society’. The university wants to be present and visible ‘in the church and public domain’. With this chair, the Theological University demonstrates that it identifies and recognizes current, relevant and urgent religious, political and social developments and issues in the field of legal theology and church law. It also wants to contribute to academic and valorizing research. It does so from a legal theology and church law perspective in the context of religion and society.
CCMW research group
The Chair’s research is embedded in one of the research groups at the university: the Center for Church and Mission in the West (CCMW). This research group employs experts in the subfields of Practical Theology and Missiology. The chair provides its own subject matter for the overarching research theme of Salvation in the 21st Century, on (un)salvific structures and the relationship between people and organization. Those institutions include faith communities, religious and social bodies, governments and government agencies.
Deddens Church Law Center
The chair aligns with the objective of the Deddens Church Law Center of which the chair holder is director. This reads: ‘to promote the study and knowledge of church law, especially Reformed church law’. In the legal-theological and canon law reflection on ecclesiastical and social issues in the field of religious freedom and religious communities, the research of the chair holder also includes the tradition and further development of Reformed church law in a comparative and/or international context.
Education, research and valorization
Research
Over the next few years, the chair aims to focus in research on the topics of legal theological reflection on the subject of Nächsten- und Liebesrecht; religious freedom and the grounds for restriction in relation to religious and/or social issues and, in particular, through a legal dissertation on religion (freedom) and corpse care law; the relationship between government and religion; international comparative (Reformed) church law; the law in and of traditional and missionary religious communities.
Teaching
The Chair is active in both undergraduate and graduate education as well as postgraduate education. Undergraduate education involves basic knowledge and skills. In the master’s programs, students deepen their knowledge of the field with the additional option of being able to choose an in-depth elective course. In addition, the professorship is active in postgraduate education, including mandatory continuing education for beginning pastors.
Valorization
An obvious expression of valorization involves advising faith communities, religious leaders, governments, politicians, lawyers, theologians and journalists. In addition to academic publications, the prospective chair holder also aims to achieve professional publications on the aforementioned research topics.
