Chair of Church History

Since the retirement of Prof. Dr. Erik de Boer (1957), the Chair of Church History has been vacant. Teaching and research in the field of church history are currently entrusted to Dr. Jan Klok. His work focuses primarily on the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, when the Reformation in Europe and the Low Countries took shape in church and society. He leads the recently established edition project Calvin’s Reforming Correspondence.

Dr. Jan Klok

The 2018–2023 research programme was entitled “Religious Life and Ecclesial Practice: Europe and the Netherlands (16th–18th Century).” Particular attention was paid to the fact that recent historiography increasingly speaks of “reformations” in the plural.

Prof. Dr. Rudolph (R.M.) Britz, Professor Emeritus of Church History at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa, is a visiting professor. His research programme, “The Impact of Religious and Ecclesial Practice in the Shaping of Societies in Dutch Colonial Settings,” has been running since 2019.

Research conducted under the Chair of Church History takes place within the Centre for Dutch Reformation Studies. The centre is part of the Neocalvinism Research Institute. The connecting theme is the study of the work of John Calvin.