Extraordinary Chair of Public Theology

As of January 1st 2026, Matthew Kaemingk is professor of public theology at the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht. Dr. Matthew Kaemingk is an award-winning author, speaker, and Christian ethicist working at the intersection of faith, politics, and culture. He serves as Senior Fellow at the Center for Public Justice. He also co-directs the Templeton Pluralism Fellowship. Kaemingk’s work focusses on a variety of issues including: political ethics, marketplace theology, Muslim-Christian relations, and Reformed public theology.

Positioning in theology

Theology has traditionally connected the knowledge of God and his revelation with all areas of life and with the church. The modern separation of church and state, and of religion and society, has forced theology back into its own limited domain. Combined with the sharper distinction between public and private domains, this threatened to narrow the theological field of interest. Theology has often since retreated to focus solely on the spiritual and the ecclesiastical.

Yet, from the beginning, there have been counter-movements that did not accept this, such as neo-Calvinism. To this day, public themes are indeed addressed within these traditions. Moreover, at the end of the 20th century, a new integrative sub-discipline, “public theology,” emerged. Two emphases characterize public theology. A. theology focuses on public themes, B. theology seeks public discourse to make a publicly relevant contribution.

Theologische Universiteit Utrecht

Public theology has also traditionally been practiced at the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht, particularly in and around ethics and philosophy. However, it will benefit both the focus on public themes and public interaction if public theology can also be practiced as a separate field from its own chair. In this way, TUU also contributes to the broader practice of theology. At the same time, the Dutch—and more broadly—Western context is increasingly open to contributions from theology. The time seems ripe to respond more emphatically to this.

Inextricably linked to this is an international dimension. In other parts of the world, religion often plays an even more significant public role. This relatively recent international, intercultural, and interreligious dimension of ‘public theology’ also justifies a more specialized focus on this field. A separate chair is therefore an effective instrument, especially at this time, to serve the public calling of Utrecht theology.

Academic and Institutional Embedding

A chair in public theology is particularly appropriate at TUU because it is rooted in the neo-Calvinist tradition. TUU has explicitly committed itself to further developing this tradition. The current context has changed, while the neo-Calvinist tradition itself has become primarily international in character and is attracting attention particularly in non-Western contexts. A growing number of non-Western Christians hope to be equipped by Western neo-Calvinist theologians, with public issues within their own contexts being their special interest in most cases. This necessitates a development of the neo-Calvinist tradition in general, and its public theology in particular, focused more on intercultural and interreligious dialogue or debate.

This ambition builds on what has been developing in this regard since 2010. At the initiative of TUU, a biennial neo-Calvinism conference is held in collaboration with Edinburgh University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. In 2018, the internationally oriented Neo-Calvinism Research Institute was established. The chair also aligns with what has been known since 1998 as the annual international Kuyper Conference. Within the networks developed through these conferences, a plan emerged after the coronavirus pandemic to provide more structured guidance to PhD students and to better support Neo-Calvinist impulses worldwide.

Specifically, starting in 2022, representatives from Edinburgh University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht have raised funds to hold major conferences in South America (Sao Paulo, 2025), Asia (2027), and Africa (2029). At these conferences and within these networks, the Theologische Universiteit Utrecht plays a consistent organizational and substantive role. The chair stems from these developments and institutionalizes and strengthens this role, for which Theologische Universiteit Utrecht is better equipped than Edinburgh or Fuller.

Neo-Calvinism Research Institute

At TUU, this chair falls under the Neo-Calvinism Research Institute. It is aligning with the chairs of Christian philosophy and the history of Neo-Calvinism. At the same time, it is related to other ordinary and extraordinary chairs within and outside the NRI and can serve and strengthen their public-theological dimension. It is distinctive because all these other chairs have a broader and partly different profile, with public theology constituting at most one dimension alongside many others. A separate chair can focus entirely on this public-theological dimension. Another important objective of the chair is to strengthen an international network of TUU with institutions that are larger than the Theological University. By, among other things, recruiting international master’s and PhD students. This chair will give substance to the TUU’s Institutional Plan 2025-2030 both substantively and strategically.

At the same time, the importance of the chair goes beyond a specific reflection on Neo-Calvinism. By establishing this chair, TUU can contribute to public questions as they arise globally in diverse contexts and theological traditions. It thus aligns with the aforementioned continued and growing interest and influx of international students and researchers who hope to receive training in the Neo-Calvinist tradition from TUU.