Open AccessVrijmaking (1944) in oorlogstijd
Author(s) -
Ab van Langevelde
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
documentatieblad voor de nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis na 1800
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2665-9492
pISSN - 0923-7771
DOI - 10.5117/dnk2019.90.005.lang
Subject(s) - emigration , distress , history , political science , sociology , law , aesthetics , political economy , art , psychology , psychotherapist
In 1944, the most difficult year of the war for the Netherlands, a conflict in the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands resulted in a split, the Vrijmaking. Often people have wondered – to say the least – why the Reformed were busy with their internal struggles in a time when national suffering and conflict required all hands to be on deck? A common explanation refers to innere Emigration: focusing on ecclesial issues was a kind of escape from national distress. In church they were like under a glass bell. The participants were aware of the incongruency of the situation, but proceeded with the Vrijmaking nonetheless. Van Langevelde proposes to replace the image of the glass bell by a bee hive, a more porous distinction between church and nation.