| |
|
|
International
Collaboration
"Sharing
the Reformed Tradition"
Free University
of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
November
1996
One aspect of the Institute's work is collaboration with fellow scholars
and other institutes and groups with related missions, not only within
the United States, but internationally, especially in the Netherlands.
This reciprocity was fostered in this academic year through two conferences,
at each of which Dr. Bruins, Dr. Swierenga, Dr. Hans Krabbendam and
Dr. George Harinck were featured speakers. Dr. Krabbendam, a former
student of Dr. Swierenga, is a member of the staff of the Roosevelt
Study Center, Middelburg, Zeeland Province, the Netherlands; Dr. Harinck's
work is with the Historical Documentation Center at the Free University
of Amsterdam.
"Pioneers
for Jesus Christ": Dutch Protestant Colonization in North America
as an Act of Faith
...At first Dutch
authorities tried to check the Separatist movement by levying stiff fines
on dissenting clerics and banning worship services. Some employers refused
to hire Separatists. Such harassment created an emigration mentality
and when the potato blight struck in 1845 and 1846, entire congregations
of Separatists departed en masse for the United States. The "Groote Trek" was
led by a half-dozen Seceder clergymen, notably Albertus C. Van Raalte
and Hendrik P. Scholte, who each took about a thousand followers to Holland,
Michigan, and Pella, Iowa, respectively. Other thousands of Seceders
soon joined them. In the years from 1846 through 1850, eighty of every
one thousand Seceders departed from the fatherland, compared to only
four per thousand Hervormde Kerk adherents. These people had a remarkable
impact on the American Dutch Reformed community, especially when one
considers the fact that they were only a minor part of the much larger
migration from the Netherlands in the last half of the nineteenth century.
excerpted from
a speech given by Robert P. Swierenga, published in Sharing the
Reformed Tradition: The Dutch-North American Exchange, 1846-1996,
p. 41.
"A Plant of
American Origin: Fit for Dutch Soil?":
American Protestantism and the Dutch Reformed
Temperance Effort, 1835-1935
...Dutch Christians
saw the drinking problem foremost as a mental problem. Therefore their
expectations for legal measures were not high, except as instruments
to reduce temptation. Many Christians discovered that temperance advanced
all those issues important to them: Sabbath observance, prayer, living
to the honor of God, and the coming of God's Kingdom. The most receptive
to the Anglo Saxon temperance movement were those who were involved in
evangelism and missions, such as Adama van Scheltema and J. L. de Jonge,
who were willing to make personal sacrifices. This confirms the connection
between revivalist leanings and temperance activities. excerpted from a speech given by Hans Krabbendam,
published in Sharing the Reformed Tradition: The Dutch-North American
Exchange, 1846-1996, p. 73 |
In November, Dr. Bruins and Dr. Swierenga traveled to the Netherlands to take
part in a lecture series sponsored by the Free University of Amsterdam and the
Roosevelt Study Center in Middelburg. Dr. Jacobson had earlier assisted in conference
preparations by editing the English translations of several papers written by
the Dutch scholars.
"An American
Moses": Albertus C. Van Raalte
as Immigrant Leader
...Van Raalte
was not the installed pastor of the Holland congregation because there
was no classis to install him. This was likely the case for the other
pastors also. For that reason and others, the congregations of the colony
formed the Classis of Holland on April 23, 1848. The agenda of the meeting
included important issues which reflected Van Raalte's background in
the Netherlands. One was accepting the Kerkelijk Handboekje of 1840 for
the church order to be followed. Another was the decision to allow elders
and deacons to serve repeated terms, a departure from the Dordt church
order that had caused the Churches Under the Cross to leave the Afscheiding
movement. The third key item was to give the churches the freedom to
celebrate festival days as they saw fit.
excerpted from a speech given by Elton J. Bruins, published in Sharing
the Reformed Tradition: The Dutch-North American Exchange, 1846-1996,
p. 25.
|
In their introduction to the collected speeches, "Sharing the Reformed
Tradition," Dr. Harinck and Dr. Krabbendam note (p. 9) that sharing "implies
foremost communication; [but] in a stronger sense sharing means participation,
and the examples in this book explain that the Reformed not only talked to, wrote,
and visited one another, but they joined in projects and campaigns. Sometime
these contacts even generated an emotional response, either of exultation or
of frustration. "
Other lectures given at
the Netherlands conference included "Abraham Kuyper, American History, and
the Tensions of Neo-Calvinism," by James Bratt; "The Gospel Hymns in the
Low Countries," by Jan Smelink; and "The Place of the Church in Society:
Views of Dutch and American Ministers in Canada in the 1950s," by Aileen
Van Ginkel.
Valentijn
Hepp in America:
Attempts at International Exchange in the 1920s
...[Hepp] regularly
informed his Dutch audience about his experiences in De Reformatie, in
a series describing his travel impressions, titled "Through America." How
different the circumstances were compared to the times of Kuyper was
shown by the many difficulties Hepp had to overcome before he was able
to disembark in New York. He described his experience at the American
consulate at Amsterdam and on Ellis Island, New York, how the tight rules
of the 1921 Immigration Law blocked the way to America for numerous recent
immigration groups. By portraying America's immigration laws as a symbol
of distrust of foreigners, he showed that the new world was no longer
ahead of the old world, but followed the same self-protective ways.
excerpted from a speech given by George Harinck, published in Sharing
the Reformed Tradition: The Dutch-North American Exchange, 1846-1996,
p. 124.
|
"The Sesquicentennial
of Dutch Immigration:
150 years of Ethnic Heritage"
Holland, Michigan, June 1997
In the spring of 1997, Dr. Krabbendam and Dr. Harinck were
guests of the Institute when they visited Holland, Michigan, to participate
in the biennial conference
of the Association for the Advancement of Dutch American Studies. The theme
of the conference, held at Hope College on June 12 and 13, was "The Sesquicentennial
of Dutch Immigration: 150 years of Ethnic Heritage." Planned and coordinated
by Larry J. Wagenaar, AADAS president, the conference was co-sponsored by the
Joint Archives of Holland at Hope College and the A. C. Van Raalte Institute.
Keynote speaker for the conference was storyteller
James C. Schaap, who presented "First Bride," an original story written for
the occasion.
The 17 AADAS conference
addresses included talks by Drs. Bruins and Swierenga who, respectively,
discussed Albertus Van Raalte's role as leader of the emigration, and the
development of rivalry between Van Raalte and Hendrik Scholte. Dr. Krabbendam
spoke on "Cornelius Vander Meulen: Leader or Follower?"; Dr. Harinck's presentation
was titled "'Calvinism Isn't the Only Truth': Herman Bavinck's Impressions
of the USA in 1892."
Contacts with Dr. Krabbendam
and Dr. Harinck have greatly enhanced our work at the Institute. We hope
that the pattern of collegiality established in this international exchange
will be a model for interactions with other groups who share our interests
and goals.
| The Archive and
Documentation Center of the Reformed Churches (Geereformde Kerken, "Vrijgemaakt")
at Kampen in the Netherlands, under the directorship of Dr. George
Harinck, has sponsored a series of lectures by internationally known
scholars in the area of Dutch religious history. Drs. Bruins, Swierenga,
and Kennedy have each recently contributed to this lecture series. Dr. Swierenga's address, given in March, 1996, described
research which has been conducted on Dutch Protestant immigration
to the United States, and suggested future directions for such research.
In November, 1996, Dr. Bruins discussed the founding of Albertus
Van Raalte's Holland Colony in Michigan, and de Kolonie's early
years. Dr. Kennedy spoke, in June, 1997, on the effects of Dutch
social change during the 1960s. This topic was the subject of his
doctoral dissertation, published in the Netherlands under the title Nieuw
Babylon in Aanbouw: Nederland in de Jaren Zestig, now in its
second edition. Publication in the United States in an English translation
is being explored. |
|
