Harry M. Kuitert (November 11, 1924 in

Drachten Drachten () is a town in the northern Netherlands. It is located in the municipality of Smallingerland, Friesland. It had a population of around 45,186 in January 2017 and is the second largest town in the province of Friesland. History Begin ...

– September 8, 2017 in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...

) was a

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN). Harry Kuitert - baptised Harminus Martinus - was a rector at Scharendijk ( Zeeland) and a student pastor at

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

before he became a professor of theology. In Zeeland, he witnessed the great

North Sea flood of 1953 The 1953 North Sea flood was a major flood caused by a heavy storm surge that struck the Netherlands, north-west Belgium, England and Scotland. Most sea defences facing the surge were overwhelmed, causing extensive flooding. The storm and flo ...

which inundated large parts of this Dutch province. In 1967, he succeeded the illustrious theologian

G. C. Berkouwer Gerrit Cornelis Berkouwer (1903–1996) was for years the leading theologian of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (GKN). He occupied the chair in systematic theology of the Faculty of Theology, Free University (VU) in Amsterdam. Berkouwer ...

as professor of systematic theology at the

Free University A free university is an organization offering uncredited, public classes without restrictions to who can teach or learn. They differ in structure. In 1980 in the United States, about half were associated with a traditional university, about a ...

(VU) in

, and in 1989 he retired from this chair. Kuitert in the course of his life moved from Calvinist orthodoxy to Calvinist middle orthodoxy following his mentor and Ph.D. supervisor Berkouwer, for whom he wrote his dissertation on the Divine Co-Humanity (Dutch: ''medemenselijkheid'', Afrikaans: ''Medemenslikheid'') (''De mensvormigheid Gods'' (1962); German edition 1967). Then, after writing voluminously, critically, and yet appreciatively on

Karl Barth Karl Barth (; ; – ) was a Swiss Calvinist theologian. Barth is best known for his commentary '' The Epistle to the Romans'', his involvement in the Confessing Church, including his authorship (except for a single phrase) of the Barmen Declara ...

, Kuitert later also moved on to a totally unorthodox stance on Jesus Christ, skipping

neo-orthodoxy In Christianity, Neo-orthodoxy or Neoorthodoxy, also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology, was a theological movement developed in the aftermath of the First World War. The movement was largely a reaction against doctrines of ...

altogether. Kuitert developed his views beyond those of Berkouwer whose views seemed definitive. According to Ecumenical News International, Kuitert, after his own emeritation in 1989, and by now the most widely read theologian in the Netherlands, broke completely with Berkouwer and "Middle Orthodox" tradition (the theological mainstream of the reformed church) in his book, ''Jesus, the Inheritance of Christianity'' (1998). "Jesus supported the Jewish view of God, so he never saw himself as God on earth. He is not a Second God, nor the Second Person of the Holy Trinity," said the 80-year-old Kuitert, adopting publicly an informal unitarian stance on the key doctrine of Christian faith, much to the grief of those who continue to love and appreciate the work of Kuitert's mentor Berkouwer. Another widely read book, both by Protestants and Catholics, is his ''Het algemeen betwijfeld christelijk geloof'' (1992), translated as ''I have my doubts: how to become a Christian without being a fundamentalist'' (1993). In this book he gives a succinct overview of the gaps he perceives between tradition, dogma, the classic Christian theological themes and the questions of people nowadays. His avowed goal is to go back to the purposes behind the classic forms of Christian doctrine in order to enable the faithful to renew and develop their faith facing the 21st century. His works have been translated into several languages. Critics have argued that this book is an exercise in refined agnosticism, and that Kuitert can no longer be properly considered a Christian theologian.

Bibliography

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''Signals from the Bible''

References

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umaryland.worldcat.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuitert, Harry M. 1924 births 2017 deaths Christian ethicists Dutch Calvinist and Reformed theologians People from Drachten Academic staff of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam